DEFINITION OF THE LIST OF PERSONS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE LIQUIDATION OF ACCUMULATED ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE SITES: PROBLEMS OF DIFFERENTIATION AND WAYS OF CATEGORIZATION

Abstract

The article analyzes the issue of ownership of objects of accumulated environmental damage (hereinafter referred to as OED) by legal entities. The author substantiates the thesis about the lack of ownership of OED as its key feature. The article explores the conflict between the basic definition of OED in Federal Law No. 7-FZ dated January 10, 2002, "On Environmental Protection" and the criteria defined in Government Decree No. 2335 dated December 27, 2023, "On Approval of the Criteria for Designating Areas and Capital Construction Objects as Accumulated Environmental Damage", which excludes private lands from the list of accumulated environmental damage. The article also examines the roles of the owner and manager of the OED and the ways of evading liability in the liquidation of the OED. It is concluded that it is necessary to introduce categorization of potential OEDs by types of ownership legislatively, as well as to introduce mandatory environmental audit during the transfer of rights to land plots and liquidation of legal entities.