A member of the Federation Council Committee on Agrarian and Food Policy and Use of Natural Resources, Senator from the Amur Region Yury Kushnar, visited the studio of Vestnik Kavkaza. One of the main topics of the conversation were the measures taken in the Far East with the aim of restoring order in the sphere of mineral resources use.
"I would not say that this is a very acute problem. Rather, it is a large scale problem. The Far East is so sparsely populated, and it is so big, so it is extremely difficult to control the illegal use of mineral resources. Even if you can identify instances, then the measures provided under the current legislation, in particular the Administrative Code, are insignificant. They are not encouraging a law-abiding use of the mineral resources by the participants of this process. But to say that it actually brings some huge losses to the country, I would not say that. Especially since in many ways order has already been imposed", he decribed the situation in this sphere.
"However, my fellow legislators of the Amur Regional Legislative Assembly came up with the initiative, this initiative is now being considered by the State Duma, we recently examined it in the Federation Council. This bill is about strengthening responsibility. That means the amount of the fines has been increased and another sanction for the illegal use of mineral resources has been introduced. This is the confiscation of the tools with which the illegal use of mineral resources was conducted. It is rather aimed at production of common minerals, because these minerals, which are necessary for technologies, it is certainly very difficult. In fact, it is hardly possible to extract gold illegally in some large volumes. Where gold is mined illegally, it happens in very a small amount," the senator said.
"Our colleagues from Magadan have been fighting for a long time to legalize the illegal trafficking by permitting a simplified procedure, but not in fields of an industrial character, but minor fields, small, up to 10 kg, I think, if I remember correctly, their bill provides the issuance of permits. And all of those who are now interested in it, they could obtain such permission at a particular site. Already legally, not hiding from anyone, and most importantly, for them it would be, of course, much easier, more profitable, because they would sell this gold or other minerals not illegally, but sell it like any other legal mineral resources user would," Kushnar told us.
"I understand that it is actually a solution, because besides the fact that we are mining illegally, or not we, but some dishonest citizens are mining minerals, particularly gold, and among other things there are those who are legally mining from the mines, in cooperatives, organizations that are mining, in particular, placer gold, there is, of course, thievery. Previously, it was on a much larger scale, now if the facts are there, they are sporadic. However, it exists. And if the bill will pass, it is so long lasting, it has been considered for a long time, I think it is still green, I've recently seen notes to it. I think that we still have to work on it seriously. But if it is adopted, it will solve this problem," he believes.
