SYKTYVKAR, July 25. /TASS/. The State Duma’s working group on regional politics, North and the Far East supported an initiative of the Komi Region to expand the Russian Arctic zone, press service of Komi’s legislative body, the State Council, said on Wednesday.

"[The suggestions] have been supported by the working group, and they will be subjects of further discussions," the press service quoted the State Council’s Deputy Speaker Valentina Zhideleva as saying. "Tomorrow, the State Duma will have the last meeting before the break, but we have agreed that in late August we shall return to this discussion."

If Usinsk, Inta and the Ust-Tsilemsky District become parts of the Russian Arctic zone, she continued, the quality of life there will become better due to changes to the taxation system, to attracting investments, to development of businesses and tourism, and to support from the federal authorities in the implementation of social and infrastructure projects.

"Usinsk, Inta and the Ust-Tsilemsky District have close relations with Vorkuta and the Nenets Autonomous Region, which have been included into the Russian Arctic zone," the deputy speaker reported to the working group. "Besides, they have infrastructure and natural resources, and those territories are of certain military and strategic importance."

According to her, the working group contemplated expanding the Russian Arctic zone by all territories, which are located in the Extreme North.

Komi’s authorities have been insisting on expanding the Russian Arctic zone for several years already. They say, all the listed territories are along the Northern Polar Circle, in the permafrost area, which in the international practice is the major factor to classify the territory as Arctic. Experts of the Russian Academy of Science have supported Komi’s initiative.