"The suspension will only concern the production cycle which deposits waste in the lake," the Natural Resources Ministry's statement reads.
The ministry said on December 4 that Rosprirodnadzor would sue a pulp mill for damages of over 475 million rubles ($19 million) for dumping waste into Siberia's Lake Baikal.
"Russian Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutnev has instructed Rosprirodnadzor to sue the Baikal Pulp and Paper Plant for damages to a body of water [Lake Baikal] resulting from the unsanctioned dumping of pollutants," the ministry said in a press release.
The watchdog applied last Monday to the Irkutsk arbitration court with a petition to suspend the plant's activities over charges that it was polluting Lake Baikal, the world's deepest lake.
In early November, Mitvol said the Baikal Pulp and Paper Plant, which had earlier failed to extend its water use license, should suspend its operations, adding that wastewater discharges by pulp and paper enterprises were among the worst in the industry.
The Baikal pulp mill, which produces 200,000 metric tons of pulp and 12,000 metric tons of paper per year, is located in east Siberia. The mill is owned by the timber industrial company Continental Management (51%) and the State Property Committee of Russia (49%).
