INTRODUCTION

Despite the fact that different Commonwealth of Independent States Members are currently at different stages of environmental legislation development, many of those countries are experiencing problems that result in insufficiently effective legislation on compensation and assessment of environmental damage.

For example, in most CIS countries legislation does not prioritise compensation for environmental damage through the efforts to restore its components. Specialist funds have been established in the Kyrgyz Republic and in the Republic of Moldova to collect resources from enterprises received as a payment for negative impact on the environment, as well as compensation for environmental damage. As for the other CIS Member States, the lack of regulations on the targeted nature of funds received, including compensation for environmental damage, mitigates the value of provisions in the environmental legislation on compensation for environmental damage.

When it comes to methods for environmental damage assessment in the CIS countries, there is also a general tendency for indirect methods of assessment to prevail. These methods are a legacy of the Soviet past and can be most effectively applied in conditions of state ownership of natural resources.

Let us take a closer look at the specifics of the legal and regulatory framework of environmental liability in the context of prevention and elimination of environmental damage in the various CIS states.

ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT LEGISLATION ON COMPENSATION FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE IN CIS COUNTRIES

RUSSIAN FEDERATION

In the legislation of the Russian Federation, the concepts of “harm” and “damage” mainly have an economic, monetary sense.

The term “environmental damage” in the Federal Law of 10 January 2002, No. 7-FZ, on Environmental Protection (hereinafter referred to as “Law No. 7-FZ”) has become subject to criticism from scientists and practitioners on multiple occasions. For example, the definition under consideration entails that damage can only be caused as a result of pollution which is not in line with the provisions of Chapter 14 of Law No. 7-FZ. According to paragraph 1 of Article 77, legal entities that have caused harm to the environment as a result of its pollution, as well as depletion, damage, elimination, inefficient use of natural resources, degradation and destruction of natural ecological systems, natural complexes and natural landscapes and other violation of environmental legislation, must compensate it in full in accordance with the law.