Development of Auditing in Russia

This article discusses the importance of auditing in general, and the formation and development of audit in the Russian Federation in particular. It also examines the process of creation of the Russian auditing standards on the basis of International Standards on Auditing (ISA) and the gradual transition to ISA in post-Soviet Russia.
In general, the audit in Russia has some controversial issues. Any problem always has more than one side. The problem of the development of audit in Russia is not an exception. Disputable issues occur not due to ignorance or a lack of understanding of the essence of the audit by theoretical scientists. They occur due to the controversy in the history of the emergence and the initial stages of development of audit (Danilevsky, Yu.A., 1995). The specifics of the audit in Russia is due, first of all, to the fact that it became a common phenomenon during the period of economic reforms in the 90s of the twentieth century.
The development of economic relations in Russia, which subsequently led to the establishment of the audit in its modern sense, was associated with the emergence of joint-stock companies and realization of banking reforms aimed at reviving the credit capital and activating the stock market. In Russia at that time, most of the joint-stock companies were founded with the involvement of foreign capital, primarily French and German. This fact greatly affected the approach to the formation and organization of audit. Foreign audit organizations were often invited to conduct audits of joint-stock companies which were established in Russia during that period.
Despite the fact that the audit in Russia did not receive an extensive development at the beginning of the twentieth century, many guidelines, accepted in other countries, were actively applied in Russia. Russian accountants contributed to the development of the methodology and methods of audit, which was reflected in the Russian accounting literature and laws. Since 2018, International Standards on Auditing have been implemented in Russia.