Deputies of the United Russia party will submit two bills to the State Duma aimed at combating Sosnovsky’s hogweed in Russia. This is reported by Vedomosti with reference to the texts of documents.
One will enshrine the concept of “invasive plants” in the Land Code (the distribution of which threatens biological diversity), and the second will establish fines for overgrowing land with them at the federal level. According to a source in the State Duma, the initiatives are now awaiting official government feedback.
Amendments are proposed to be made to Art. 8.7 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (failure to fulfill obligations for land reclamation, mandatory measures for land improvement and soil protection). Fines will range from 20,000 to 50,000 rubles for citizens, from 50,000 to 100,000 rubles. – for officials and from 400 thousand to 700 thousand rubles. – for legal entities.
Deputy Dmitry Vyatkin added that before the initiative is submitted for consideration, the amount of fines may be revised. All amendments are expected to come into force on March 1 next year.
Sosnovsky’s hogweed is a plant dangerous to humans, the juice of which, under the influence of sunlight, can cause severe burns. In the late 1940s, it began to be planted in various regions of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia as a source of raw material for the production of silage. In 2015, hogweed was officially recognized as a weed and lost its status as an agricultural crop.
Source: Rosbalt
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