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No Discrimination Against Foreign Firms in Russia's New Resources Law - Minister

Posted on: Friday, 29 October 2004, 15:00 CDT

Excerpt from report by Russian news agency ITAR-TASS

Moscow, 29 October: The concept behind the new law on natural resources does not discriminate against foreign companies, Russian Natural Resources Minister Yuriy Trutnev said today at a meeting of the supreme mining council.

On the issue of allowing foreign companies to exploit Russia's natural resources, Trutnev stressed that "to be allowed to work deposits in Russia, foreigners must register a fully-fledged daughter company here". "This will ensure that the state avoids tax evasion," he said. The minister added that "according to the new law exceptions can only be made for unique sites and will be awarded following a decision by the country's government".

Unique sites, according to the Natural Resources Ministry, are oil deposits with reserves of more than 100m tonnes, gas deposits of more than 100bn cubic metres, gold deposits exceeding 400 tonnes, copper deposits exceeding 10m tonnes and diamond deposits with reserves of more than 500m carats. [Passage omitted]

According to Trutnev, the Russian Natural Resources Ministry will present the law on natural resources to the government in the very near future.

Source: BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union

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