Russia: State inspection procedure for environmental polluters is to be amended

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology (MinPrirody) has proposed amendments clarifying that if a company operates at least one facility or unit that is subject to the federal environmental supervision (as opposed to regional environmental supervision), the whole company would be subject to the federal environmental supervision. 

At present, state environmental supervision of federal-level facilities is organized and implemented by RosPrirodNadzor (the environmental protection authority), in accordance with the environmental legislation, whereas the state environmental supervision of regional-level facilities  –  by the relevant federation states. 

In practice, a situation is possible, where a company operates both federal-level and regional-level facilities and might therefore be subject to both federal-level and regional-level environmental supervision.

However, in accordance with the legislation (protecting the rights of organisations and sole traders during the performance of state supervision and control measures), it is not allowed for more than one state authority to check a company for compliance with the same regulatory requirements. Minprirody therefore intends to rectify this inconsistency by introducing amendments to the environmental legislation.