On December 24 the State Duma passed in the second and third
readings the draft #95911-4 "On Introduction of Amendments into
Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation in view of Extended
Authority of State Bodies of the Members of the Russian Federation
on the Issues of Joint Jurisdiction of the Russian Federation and
the Members of the Russian Federation, as well as Extension of the
List of Issues of Local Significance of Municipal Institutions"
The draft provides for numerous changes being introduced into
the current Forest Code of the RF. According to them, some powers
of the federal authorities are transferred to the regional
level.
For the draft to come into force, it has to be endorsed by the
Council of the Federation and signed by the President. Most
probably this will be done in January - the formality can hardly be
completed before the New Year.
Let us remind that from January 1, 2005, previous amendments are
coming into force. They are mostly opposite to the latest ones.
According to them, some powers that used to be in the jurisdiction
of regional authorities are transferred to the federal level.
This means that from the 1st of January a number of amendments
to the Forest Code are coming into force; then, within one or two
months, another set of amendments is going to come into force that
partly replaces the previous one. In the nearest future a draft
http://www.greenpeace.org/russia_ru/news/details?item_id=694599
of quite a new Code is going to be submitted to the State Duma,
which will radically change the situation once again.
All this legislative work evidently demonstrates that the
government has no particular concept of further development of the
forest industry, and all changes are planned and carried out in
random way. With such an approach the situation in the forest
industry can hardly become stable.