Ministerial Decree No. 588 regarding the validation of the Statute of the Ministry of Natural Resources.

This Ministerial Decree establishes that the Ministry exercises its authority in three major fields: 1) the organization of geological supervision and the management of public land and subsoil; 2) water management, conservation and protection; 3) research, reproduction, use and protection of natural resources; 4) montoring of the state of subsoil and water bodies. The Ministry is authorized to organize the state geological supervision of the territory and the continental shelf of the Russian Federation, the depth of the World Ocean and the natural resources of Antarctica.