Treaty on legal assistance
A bilateral or multilateral treaty under which the documents of one country are accepted in the other without an apostille or legalisation.
Such a treaty means the authorities of the two countries have agreed in advance to trust each other's public documents without verifying their authenticity separately. Russia has treaties of this kind with many CIS states and with a number of countries in Eastern Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
In practice institutions in several European countries ask for an apostille anyway, because an internationally recognisable stamp is easier for a clerk to check than a treaty from the 1980s.
Related terms
Minsk Convention
The 1993 convention on legal assistance between CIS countries, under which documents from one country are accepted in another without an apostille or legalisation.
OpenChisinau Convention
The 2002 convention on legal assistance; from 2023 it replaces the 1993 Minsk Convention for Russia and part of the CIS.
OpenLegalisation of documents
The general name for the procedures that make a Russian document usable abroad: an apostille, consular legalisation, or nothing at all under a treaty.
OpenHague Convention
The Convention of 5 October 1961 abolishing the requirement of legalisation for foreign public documents between contracting states and introducing the apostille.
Open