Due to the sanctions the deadlines for submitting applications for obtaining integrated environmental permits have been shifted in Russia

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As Dmitry Kobylkin, chairman of the State Duma committee on ecology, former Minister of Natural Resources, explained in an interview with the Vedomosti, we are talking about the best available technologies (BAT) that affect clean water, air - in general, people's health.

"Unfortunately, enterprises did not buy BAT in Russia," Kobylkin noted. The ban on the import of foreign technologies will slow down the implementation of the national project "Ecology", some activities will be implemented more slowly," the deputy said.

"Our industry has not yet reached such a level of BAT output. For the same reason, the period for creating systems for automatic control of emissions and discharges of pollutants has been extended, and the expansion of the list of cities on the territory of which an experiment on emission quotas is being carried out has been postponed for a year. They also postponed the commissioning of the Federal State System of the Forestry Complex by two years," Kobylkin said.

He expressed hope that it would be possible to start producing Russian harvesters. "For this, it is necessary to form a 20-year state order. It makes no sense to produce them for two or three years. Therefore, this is an evolutionary process," the deputy added. 

Kobylkin considers it likely that Asian companies will enter the Russian market and «partially replace the departed European ones». 

"But gradually we will increase our production," he said. "A holy place is never empty. As soon as something leaves, it is replaced by something  - either Russian or imported," Kobylkin concluded.