REUTERS
The new law establishes the same rules for licensing in the Russian-occupied Crimea as in the rest of Russia.
A law to invalidate Ukrainian licenses for the use of subsoil resources in Russian-annexed Crimea has come into force in Russia along with the introduction of a new licensing procedure on the peninsula.
The right to use subsoil plots located in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov will be given under a decision of Russia's government after a respective tender is held, the Russian news agency TASS reported on August 14.
Read alsoUkraine introduces electronic auctions for subsoil use
The law stipulates that all Ukrainian licenses issued before the annexation of Crimea in 2014 are considered null and void.
"Now the government of the Russian Federation will decide on calling tenders for each subsoil section on the shelf of the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, on determining terms and conditions for the tenders, as well as on the composition of tender commissions and their rules of procedure," it said.
It is noted that the new law establishes the same rules for licensing in the Russian-occupied Crimea as in the rest of Russia.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Russian-controlled authorities in occupied Crimea sold shares worth RUB 1.5 billion (about US$22.8 million) of the Miskhor, Dulber, and Ai-Petri health centers, which were in Ukraine's state ownership.
UNIAN memo. Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea in March 2014 after its troops had occupied the peninsula. An illegal referendum was held for Crimeans to decide on accession to Russia. De-facto Crimean authorities reported that allegedly 96.77% of the Crimean population had voted for joining Russia. On March 18, 2014, the so-called agreement on the accession of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol to Russia was signed in the Kremlin.
The West did not recognize the annexation in response to which sanctions against Russia were introduced. Ukraine's parliament voted to designate February 20, 2014, as the official date when the temporary occupation of Crimea began.