Foreign companies should only have limited rights to lease Russian forestry

Foreign timber companies should only have limited rights to lease Russian forestry. As a Rosbalt correspondent reports, this was announced by Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Natural Resources Alexander Beliakov recently. In Mr Beliakov's opinion, only Russian companies should be allowed to take part in tenders for long-term leases on Russian forestry as they will not be able to compete with foreign companies. 'The participation of foreign companies in our timber industry will have a negative social impact. Foreigners will never invest in the local area and community,' he said. As an example he took some projects by IKEA, which is planning to create two timber processing plants in Karelia.