MOSCOW, June 21. /TASS/. The State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, adopted a bill, which in particular establishes a ban on issuing licenses for the development of domestic mineral resources to foreign companies. The document was adopted in the third and final reading at a plenary session on Tuesday.
According to the amended bill, only legal entities established in accordance with the law of the Russian Federation, as well as individual entrepreneurs, who are citizens of Russia, can be users of national mineral resources. To continue working in Russia, foreign companies will have to create legal entities in the Russian Federation and transfer the rights to use subsoil plots to them. Valid licenses for the right to use subsoil held by foreigners will be transferred to Russian entities or returned to the subsoil fund.
The law states that within 30 days from the date it comes into effect, foreign legal entities must be notified of the need to transfer the right to use a subsoil plot to a Russian legal entity. After that, within 90 days, foreign subsoil users are required to create a legal entity in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation in order to continue their activities.
As the speaker of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin noted, "the need for such a decision became obvious in the situation of sanctions pressure."
"The introduction of a legislative ban on the development of domestic mineral resources by foreign companies will protect the economic interests of Russia," Volodin stressed.
The bill stipulates that subsoil plots can be used without auction by entities of the natural monopoly in railway transport, with which civil law contracts were concluded for construction, reconstruction and repair of public railway transport infrastructure facilities. According to the amendments, the authorities of the Russian regions will make a decision on granting such a right.