MOSCOW, March 3. /TASS/. Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology will allocate two billion rubles ($17 million) for work of the permafrost monitoring system, Chairman of the Ministry’s Public Council Alexander Zakondyrin said on Wednesday.

"The ministry plans to allocate over a few coming years <…> under this project [to monitor the permafrost] about additional 2 billion rubles to have this system working," he told the 7th international conference Arctic: Sustainable Development.

According to him, the permafrost studies are necessary for further industrial development.

Earlier, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin ordered the government to make necessary changes to the legislation, related to the organization of a state system to monitor the permafrost. Such a system, Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology Alexander Kozlov said, would be organized at the national hydrometeorology service, Roshydromet. Additionally, the president ordered to plan necessary expenses in the federal budget for 2023 and for the planned period of 2024 and 2025.