Transformation of the Participation of Foreign Companies in the Sphere of Russian Subsoil Use

Abstract

The collapse of the Soviet Union marked the termination of the rigid distribution system of subsurface user quotas, based on the planned indicators of mineral extraction provided by the command economy. Since the beginning of the 1990s, active involvement of foreign companies in the field of subsoil use has begun in our country. The purpose of this process was to use foreign investments, specialists and equipment to develop a profitable and in-demand industry. However, joint ventures and projects of that time, unfortunately, often harmed the national interests of the Russian Federation. In the early 2000s, the active improvement of Russian legislation in the field of subsoil use, land relations and environmental safety began. This was due to both issues of Russia’s economic security and the need to respond to unfriendly policies from a number of Western states.The special military operation on 02/24/2022 and the subsequent sanctions by many world states against the Russian Federation forced the domestic legislator to radically change the approach to granting the right to use mineral resources in Russia. As part of counter-sanctions and actions to protect the Russian economy, foreign companies’ access to the Russian subsoil was actually closed. In addition, all foreign companies were obliged to re-register in accordance with Russian legislation or leave the Russian market, abandoning their assets in favor of domestic companies. In such a situation, a thorough analysis and assessment of the legality of the actions of the Russian authorities is necessary, which many Western countries have already hastened to call nothing else than the nationalization of foreign assets.