"The Virgin Komi Forests", being the only nomination of the Russian Federation (significant modification of boundaries with regard to the property already on the List), has been submitted to the World Heritage Centre by February 1, 2014 (deadline by which complete nominations must be received each year).The new "Western Caucasus" nomination was not approved by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation and not submitted to the World Heritage Centre.

The proposals to significantly modify the boundary of the Western Caucasus property being already on the World Heritage List which, according to Paragraph 165 of the Operational Guidelines, shall be forwarded as if it were a new nomination, have been submitted to the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. This new nomination involves the property extension to include additional 69,828 ha due to incorporation of new unique territories and immediate taking out of the plot with the area of 6,550 ha failing to meet the criteria of integrity and outstanding universal value. The proposed changes will be specifically studied by IUCN experts in the course of 1.5-year evaluation cycle stipulated by the procedure regulations.

The Congress attended by more than 3,000 delegates from throughout Russia was an event terminating the Year of Environment Protection. All activities at the Congress were organized in the form of 20 roundtable discussions devoted to the most important aspects of nature conservation. According to the results of these discussions, a Resolution of 4th All-Russian Congress on Environment Protection has been adopted to include recommendations and instructions to the RF Government, relevant ministries, as well as executive government bodies of constituent entities within the Russian Federation.

On 19 November, representatives of the 190 States Parties to the 1972 World Heritage Convention elected 12 new members to the 21-member intergovernmental Committee in charge of managing UNESCO’s World Heritage List and implementing the Convention.

In the beginning of October, Russia has passed a number of large scale topographic maps providing sufficient details with regard to the nominated site and its buffer zone to the World Heritage Centre. Besides, one year has already passed after the inscription of the Mongolian part related to the transnational property on the Tentative List of Mongolia. Therefore, both reasons under which the nomination was determined to be incomplete in February 2013 (ref. to news item as of 04.03.2013) were removed. This information was communicated to the Russian party by Mr. Rao, Director of the World Heritage Centre.