Karelia proposes raising fines for breaking environmental protection regulations in Arctic
© RIA Novosti. Ilya Timin

Karelia proposes raising fines for breaking environmental protection regulations in Arctic

The Legislative Assembly of the Republic of Karelia is proposing amendments to the Russian Federation Code of Administrative Offenses that will fine companies working in the Arctic that violate environmental protection regulations, Interfax reports.

Timur Zornyakov, Chairman of Karelia's Legislative Assembly Committee for Natural Resources and Ecology, spoke about it at a visiting meeting of the State Duma Committee on Ecology and Environmental Protection to the Murmansk Regional Duma.

"We propose amending the Russian Code of Administrative Offenses to tighten administrative measures for violations of environmental law and natural resource management in Russia's Arctic zone by increasing fines for violations or introducing special administrative or procedural regulations," he said.

Today Article 8.39 of the Russian Code of Administrative Offenses imposes a fine of 3,000-4,000 rubles on individuals, 15,000-20,000 rubles on officials and 300,000-500,000 rubles on legal entities, plus confiscation of equipment used and any products produced during any illegal nature management activitiy.