The published resolution No. 1297 of August 28, 2020 on Introducing Amendments to the Provisions on the Ministry of the Russian Federation for the Development of the Russian Far East and Arctic has expanded the powers of the department.

Thus, the ministry can now issue construction permits, commission infrastructure facilities during their construction and reconstruction, as well as allocate plots of land in federal ownership, which are free from the rights of third persons, with a view to implementing investment projects in Russia's Arctic territory.

The document also approves the order for maintaining a registry of Russian Arctic zone residents, the content of information and the order for providing it, and establishes requirements to a business plan, attached to the application for signing an agreement on investment activities and the criteria for assessing this plan, and endorses methods of defining the maximum-permissible deviations from the parameters of the investment project envisaged by an agreement on investment activities.

In addition to this, the document establishes the order for coordinating spot inspections of Russian Arctic zone residents, grounds for holding them and standards of responsibility of these residents in relations with the indigenous small peoples of the North that reside and/or conduct economic activities there, and the order for monitoring of the said responsibility standards by these residents.

The ministry will also be able to provide services for the residents of Russia's Arctic zone, which are required for conducting activities there, including in the legal sphere, accounting and customs formalities.