The draft law provides formal definitions for use in various regulatory areas when designating facilities as critically important or potentially hazardous and territories as at risk of rapidly evolving natural or man-made hazards.
The draft federal law On Amending the Federal Law On Protecting People and Territories from Natural and Man-Made Disasters (hereinafter, the draft law) has been developed in accordance with a presidential directive to improve legal regulation in the sphere of anti-terrorist protection of critically important and potentially hazardous facilities.
The draft law proposes to amend the Federal Law On Protecting People and Territories from Natural and Man-Made Disasters to include terms such as “critically important facility” and “potentially hazardous facility” which lacked precise legal definitions.
The definitions have been developed based on an analysis of the language used in Russian legislation.
In addition, the draft law introduces the term “territory subject to rapidly evolving natural and man-made hazards” which expands on the term “area under an emergency alert.”
Such territories can include “land, water or airspace, as well as critically important and potentially hazardous facilities that are designated as such based on a forecast of the risk of emergency.” Forecasts must be conducted in accordance with the rules and regulations of the unified state system for emergency prevention and response.
The draft law proposes to improve one of the main components of this system, namely, forecasting and assessing the socioeconomic effects of emergencies.
By introducing concepts such as “critically important facility” and “potentially hazardous facility,” the draft law seeks to clarify the authority of the Russian Government in the sphere of protecting people and territories from emergency situations by introducing classification criteria and establishing requirements for such facilities.
The draft law provides uniform definitions to be used in various regulatory areas when designating facilities as critically important or potentially hazardous and territories as at risk of rapidly evolving natural and man-made hazards.
The draft law will be discussed at a Government meeting.
