Until recently in Russia there were only administrative penalties for illegal insider trading, those were rarely used and insider trading was wide-spread. In 2010 the law on insider tradingwas introduced. It stipulated criminal penalties for illegal insider trading. An identification of cases of suspected insider trading and a comparison of its scale with other markets is a pertinent issue, including for an evaluation of the effectiveness of the adopted law.

The research of insider trading on developed and emerging markets shows that insiders earn positive abnormal return by trading shares before the announcements of important corporate events on average. This abnormal return is higher in emerging markets. Mergers and acquisitions are such type of corporate events. There is a correlations between severity of the law on insider trading and the size of insider trading.

Our research covered 36 M&A deals in the Russian market in 2006–2013. We have found positive average abnormal returns (ACAR) before the announcement of the deals. They reach 15% at the date of an announcement or a first rumor. These numbers are statistically significant starting from date –12 at the 1% confidence level. Two thirds of the ACAR is realized before the announcement of the deal while in the USA only one third is realized before the announcement. Average abnormal trading volume is also positive. A sharp increase of AVV takes place five days before the announcement. AVV grows up to the date of announcement and reaches 382% of the standard volume one day before the announcement. The existence of positive ACAR and AAV is an indication of the fact that the market learned about the deals be fore the an official announcement and even before public rumors, that is it hints at the existence of the insider trading in the Russian stock market.