President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, signed a federal law on the inclusion of internal seawaters and territorial sea of the Russian Federation along the coastline of the Crimean Peninsula in the region’s free economic zone.
The new law was published on Saturday on the official website of legal information.
In October 2016, the Russian government has approved draft amendments to the law expanding the Crimean free economic zone. The Parliament adopted the law on the 21st of June 2017, the Federation Council approved the document on the 27th of June.
The government argued its initiative by the fact that the inclusion of waters near the Crimea in the free economic zone would increase the number of persons wishing to obtain the status of participant of the free economic zone, as well as will attract additional investments into the regional economy.
The free economic zone was created in 2014 in the whole territory of the Republic of Crimea and the Federal city of Sevastopol for a period of 25 years. It provides for a special regime of entrepreneurial and other activities, as well as the application of the free customs zone’s procedure.
