Russia's Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev defended a governmental decision to bar foreign-controlled oil companies from participating in auctions of strategic mineral resources Wednesday, saying that tighter control would help Russia tackle widespread poverty in the country.
He said, ?Any country has the right to use its natural advantages to achieve its national interests.?
Earlier, last week it was announced by the Ministry that only companies with 51 percent Russian ownership would be allowed to bid for Russia's strategic reserves, which include coveted oil and gas fields around the far eastern Sakhalin island and the Arctic north as well as the Sukhoi Log gold deposit -- one of the largest in the world.
Trutnev said Wednesday that it wouldn't be sufficient for a foreign company to simply register a bidding company on Russian soil, and that companies would be screened based on anti-monopoly legislation to determine if they had foreign ownership.
"We will look at their affiliations on a case-by-case basis," he said.
