Guiding Lines: Land and Ownership

Time has passed, and nothing has changed. "Practically everywhere infringements in the granting of land [have come to light]. Public prosecutors have found cases whereby land in water-protection zones and on the territory of especially protected premises has been allocated. Numerous cases have been recorded where local government authorities have disposed of land that actually belongs to the Russian Federation," Buksman declared. And there are recent examples: in Moscow a court has passed a ruling on the clearing of land plots in Moskboretsky Park. Illegal construction in the territory of the Yasnaya Polyana estate has also been recorded. In the Primorye Territory an official has been involved in criminal activity including in the allocation of land through auctions.

Land as private property in new Russia was established by the 1993 Constitution 1993. Land legislation continues to be reformed. Too many interests are connected with it. At the Land congress a suggestion was made to find a formula that binds the interests of the state, society and business. Until now the interests of these groups have remained separate, chairman of the Federation Council Sergey Mironov admits.

"Ideally, the state and society should not represent different interests, but in each case the state is represented by a specific official X, and his interests are far from the state and the public," he declared at the congress. He also proposed a private-state partnership in the land-property sphere: "Otherwise the state will take the interests of various departments hostage."

One way to create the mechanism of such a partnership, suggested by deputy Anton Belyakov, is to treat land how the state has treated stocks of hydrocarbons, i.e. strictly taken them under control. The deputy even used the term "nationalization." "Land is the national property of Russia,” declared Belyakov. “Today, unfortunately, it has been privatized, taken away and not always used for it’s purpose…It should not be that in the Moscow region 15, 20, 25 physical individuals have 50% of all the land. If they bought it, fine, but more often than not they have obtained it deceitfully."

The financial situation and the economic crisis have become a convenient time to reach a consensus. The state feels strongly enough to have finally proposed a private-state partnership (in this case more likely s state-private partnership) in the sphere of land. Business in Russia already understands that it is better to not reject such offers. Especially if it can be used to your advantage.

On the question of the possibility of the nationalization of land Grigory Kulikov, chairman of the board of directors at MIEL Real Estate, answered that "any land under any conditions should be nationalized." Before the crisis, explains Kulikov, "structures that are large owners of land, were excited and considered their land as billions in capitalization,” but now land assets totalling thousands and tens of thousands of hectares are a serious burden and to develop them has become difficult, and the state has taken care to raise land tax. In many cases private land owners are not effective proprietors. For them the solution offered by the state to get rid of an inconvenient asset could become optimum. The main thing is that nationalization does not become expropriation.