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State program for protection of Lake Baikal to be extended till 2026

Located in south-central Siberia and surrounded by forests and mountains, Lake Baikal the world’s oldest and deepest lake

© Kirill Shipitsin/TASS

IRKUTSK, April 2. /TASS/. Russia’s ministry of natural resources has passed a decision to extend the federal program for the protection of Lake Baikal in south-central Siberia till the year 2026, the press service of the Irkutsk region government said on Monday.

"A draft program for the protection of Lake Baikal will be restructured and agreed in 2018 to extend it for six more year," the press service said.

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Winter pictures of world's deepest lake Baikal

"Our position that has been agreed with Buryatia (a Russian Siberian republic) was that this program should be extended for ten more years, till 2030. The ministry of natural resources has decided to prolong it for only six year," Irkutsk region’s minister of natural resources and environment protection Andrei Kryuchkov told TASS.

The current program worth 26 billion rubles (453.18 million US dollars) was adopted in 2012 and will expire in 2020.

Located in south-central Siberia and surrounded by forests and mountains, Lake Baikal the world’s oldest and deepest lake. It is the largest freshwater lake in the world.

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