Russia’s natural resource minister opens new Arctic office

The reorganization of the powerful government ministry comes less than a month after Dmitry Kobylkin was appointed federal minister. According to the minister, himself a  man from the Russian Arctic, the reformed structure is needed in order to follow up on the new presidential decrees of Vladimir Putin.

The reorganization includes the transfer of issues related to meteorology to a new body officially named the Department of state policy in regulation of meteorology and the study of the Arctic and Antarctica, the ministry informs.

The Ministry of Natural Resources is a key government body in Russian Arctic developments. It manages environmental protection, natural resources management, as well as international and legal issues related to the continental shelf.

It includes several powerful government agencies, among them the Forest Management Agency, the Nature Management Control Service (Rosprirodnadzor), the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Roshydromet) and the Mineral Resource Agency (Rosnedra).