The possible introduction by the government of a ban on the access of foreign companies to the development of Russian subsoil would be the wrong decision, because it is necessary to attract foreigners, since the Russian Federation has a huge amount of minerals and is interested in attracting investors for their development and sale of reserves. Igor Ananskikh, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Energy, told Izvestia on Thursday, May 26.
Earlier on the same day, Vedomosti, citing an up-to-date list of priority actions for developing the economy under sanctions, wrote that the government wanted to prohibit the issuance of licenses to foreign subsoil users for access to the development of Russian subsoil. The bill must be developed before June 15, 2022, it is planned to adopt the law before the end of the spring session.
The draft states that at the federal level, in the law “On Subsoil” it is necessary to fix the possibility of providing access to the subsoil of Russia only to domestic legal entities and individual entrepreneurs. The explanatory note says that the measure should protect Russian mining projects from the exit of foreign investors when new anti-Russian sanctions are introduced.
Ananskikh noted that this ban will not contribute to the development of the Russian economy. According to him, foreign companies that are developing Russian subsoil, which are leaving the Russian Federation, made such decisions “out of their stupidity, having invested billions of dollars” in this business. But it would be wrong to refuse other potential investors who want to develop new deposits, the deputy stressed.
Each field brings additional funds to the Russian budget, the parliamentarian concluded.
On May 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law banning foreign investors from organizing regular passenger transportation at the level of interaction with the state and municipalities. Exceptions are made only for member states of the Eurasian Economic Union. The document also removed the subway from the objects of the concession agreement. However, its operation has been extended to other types of public transport.