The Ministry of Natural Resources will no longer advance this dangerous project, which would deprive protected areas of their protection.

"More than 3,200 people voted against this project. And the Ministry of Natural Resources agreed with us," сообщают Participants of the environmental initiative "The Earth Touches Everyone" previously called on Russians to participate in online public discussions and vote against the project to prevent this dangerous decision.

The Ministry of Natural Resources intended to invalidate the regulations on nature reserves and national parks adopted in the early 1990s and used to protect them. The rationale was that the federal law "On Specially Protected Natural Areas" and individual regulations for specific protected areas already existed.

However, environmentalists pointed out that the regulations governing nature reserves and national parks contain important provisions that are not included in the Law on Protected Areas. For example, the regulations governing national parks prohibit altering the hydrological regime, constructing pulp and paper mills, chemical plants, metallurgy facilities, nuclear power plants, and anything else that could pose an environmental hazard.

If the regulations are repealed, it will be legal to build dams, locate metallurgical facilities, or engage in other destructive but profitable activities in national parks, as well as to confiscate land from them—an attempt that has been widespread recently, for example, the construction of a road in Losiny Ostrov National Park.