Tag Archives: Gosduma

President names a head of Skolkovo

Meshcherskaya, Elizabeta. “President names a head of Skolkovo” (“Prezident vozglavil Skolkovo”), Chastnii Korrespondent, 19 June 2010. 15 July 2010 http://www.chaskor.ru/article/prezident_vozglavil_skolkovo_18037.

Report on Medvedev’s formation of the management company of Skolkovo.  It was also mentioned that in addition the preparatory legislation for Skolkovo’s creation, now going through the federal Duma, that plans have been made to formulate the participating investing companies’ rights to land nearer to September.

Field of dreams in a country of innovators

Ozerova, Marina. “Field of dreams in a country of innovators” (“Pole chudes v strane innovatorov”), Moskovskiy Komsomolets, 25366, 2 June 2010. 15 July 2010 http://www.mk.ru/economics/article/2010/06/01/502106-pole-chudes-v-strane-innovatorov.html

Summary of legislation introduced to Duma by Medvedev regarding the management organization of Skolkovo.  The now state-owned lands of the new “technopolis” will be handed over into the ownership of a president-appointed “management company;” however, the company will not be allowed to sell the land, only rent it to participating investors.  These investors (tech giants like Google, Microsoft, Nokia, Siemens, etc.) are expected to receive huge tax breaks and which will not be expected to pay any taxes for their first ten years of operations if certain profit levels are not met.  These exemptions will also include exemptions from property and land taxes.

Russian administration plans to nullify land category divisions

“Administration of Russia plans to introduce nullification of land category divisions” (“Pravitel’stvo Rossii planiruet provesti otmenu deleniya zemel’ na kategorii”), World Heritage Sites, 2 March 2010. 27 July 2010 http://rpmira.org/news/468.

Explication of new legislative reforms, which will most notably end land classifications (i.e. agricultural; urban; industrial; special reservations; forest reserves; water reserves; land reservoir).  The goal of the new law is to decrease the pressure of bureaucratic corruption in land transactions and rezoning processes.  The 52 items amending current legislation should go into action in 2011.  In place of the complicated system of land categories, a Ministry of Economic Development representative says, the structure of allocated use for land plots will be strengthened through renewed territorial planning and city zoning plans.  The law will also impose penal tax rates for enterprises sitting on unused state lands, which administrators hope will push these enterprises to either use or dispose of the lands, removing the burden of “blocked lands,” which otherwise would be well utilized.

Another aim of the legislation is to increase transparency of land transactions and accessibility: information about available plots will be posted on the land Cadastre’s new online database, and all land will be required to be sold at auction.  The distribution of permissions to build on land should be simplified, and will be overseen by the administration.

Amendments and additions to laws in December 2009

“Amendments and additions to laws in December 2009,” Metrkv.ru: Vsya Nedvizhimost’ Rossii. December 2009. 28 June 2010 http://metrkv.ru/articles/index.xml?&articles_id=10336016.

Cataloguing of amendments made by the Duma in December 2009. On December 27, 2009, the deadline for the restructuring of lands held under permanent (perpetual) use was extended to January 1, 2012, and for lands on which electric, telecommunications, pipe, etc. lines are located, the deadline is now January 1, 2015.  However, the changes also include another extension: the date after which fines may be imposed upon firms that have not restructured their land holdings is now Jaunary 1, 2013, meaning enterprises that do not meet the 2012 restructuring deadline may only be fined at least a year later.  De facto, the original Edinaya Rossiya proposal (see above) was upheld.

Moscow prepares to seize

Sichkar’, Olga and Khalil’ Aminov. “Moscow prepares to seize” (“Moskva gotovit izyatie”), Kommersant 197 (4252), 22 October 2009. 22 July 2010 http://www.kommersant.ru/doc-y.aspx?DocsID=1259907.

An evaluation of new legislature proposed by the Moscow Land Resources Department (Moskomzem).  If passed, the law would give Moskomzem the explicit right to seize land that had been left unused for two years (or used outside its allotted use).  Their arguments are that it would stimulate both the fulfillment of the city land plan, as well as the privatization of enterprise lands’ use-rights.  However, one lawyer argues that the law will only be able to be applied to lands under agricultural and construction uses, saying that city administration would be hard pressed to find a legitimate reason to be seizing industrial enterprise land based on non-use of the land.

At the end of May, Duma to consider amendments to Land Code

“Dragonov: At the end of May, Duma will consider amendments to Land Code,” Edinaya Rossiya, 19 May 2009. 28 June 2010 http://www.edinros.ru/text.shtml?7/9830,.

Report on the Edinaya Rossiya party website on proposed amendments to the 2001 Land Code, regarding provisions that require firms to restructure their land holdings as leases or private property by January 1, 2010.  The party cites support for the changes from the industry, property, and land-issues committees.  The proposed extension on the deadline would be for 3 years until Jan. 1, 2013 (for lands under electric, telecommunication, pipe, motorway, and train lines, 6 years until Jan. 1, 2016).  Gosduma representatives calculate this will allow proprietors to “composedly (spokoyno)” make the required changes.

“In the opinion of [Valeriy] Dragonov,” vice-chair of the Duma Committee on Industry, “the deadline extension for the restructuring of these lands is one of the important steps to the comprehensive support of homeland industry.”  The party seems to view their postponement of short-term costs of land privatization (or restructuring as a lease) as a supporting Russian industry.

Perpetual land – for three years

Vasil’eva, Yuliya. “Perpetual land – for three years: Business asks to postpone the buy-out deadline for land plots to Jan. 1, 2013” (“Zemlya bessrochno – na tri goda”), Rossiiskaya Biznes-gazeta 692, 3 March 2009. 1 July 2010 http://www.rg.ru/2009/03/03/zemlya-vikup.html.

Summary of the history and current state of the Land Code amendments; stresses business’ desire to privatize/restructure their land use, but inability to do so due to bureaucratic barriers and high buy-out prices.  Power-mongering and super-control of the restructuring procedures on the part of local powers also complicate the conditions in which businesses were being required to buy-out their land.   The decrease in businesses’ liquid funds due to the crisis—funds that would be needed for land transactions—also increases the hardship.

In addition to these issues, RSPP department head Irina Kotelevskaya notes the lack of a “good register of land territories” as another complicating problem.  In the federal Duma’s Committee on Property, “it has been noted that in crisis-time conditions, with the increase in the price of credit and the insufficiencies of working capital at many industrial enterprises, the direction of significant monetary resources towards the organization of the buy-out of land plots might just lead to a worsening of their financial situation all the way to near-bankruptcy.

Land cadaver

“Land cadaver” (“Zemel’niy kadavr”), SmartMoney 22 (112), 23 June 2008. 12 July 2010 http://www.vedomosti.ru/smartmoney/article/2008/06/23/5760.

On the situation of unused state-owned land in the capital.  The Gosduma under the auspices of Medvedev has passed a new law (on the Assistance Fund for Residential Construction Development) aimed at redistributing currently unused federal lands that are the most valuable for residential development (as construction lands or as lands for construction material factories).  Out of the 10,000 most attractive hectares, half are located in settled areas, many of which are in Kaliningrad.  A special commission will assess whether or not suspected lands are being used, but the criteria for such categorization and seizure are not delineated in the law.

In one case with the Russian Academy of the Sciences (RAN), whose lands (under permanent perpetual use, according to Vikiteka at http://ru.wikisource.org/wiki/Устав_Российской_академии_наук) are threatened by the new law, RAN proposed to Putin directly to construct residential buildings for young scientists in order to avoid a supposedly temporary restructuring takeover by the state company “Rostekhnologiya;” nonetheless, in April 2009, operations on these lands were expected to be frozen by a special order of the administration, and then after the passage of the new law, will most likely be given over to the Land Fund or directly to the region.  (An order regarding this freeze of RAN lands from the Kremlin appeared on the Federal State Cadastre website on 30 July 2009 at http://r41.kadastr.ru/news/media/999725/; the first of these lands were to be put up for auction in November, according to http://www.nep08.ru/agroprom/news/2009/10/09/fond_rzhs/).

Difficulties with disagreements over fair compensation and with insufficient monies in the Moscow Department of Land Resources are described, although the new law is expected to inject new momentum and resources into the coffers of available, valuable lands; within the week, first vice-director of the department Oleg Ryzhkov planned to send notices to involved lands.  Some of these Moscow lands will be seized for but small roadway expansions, though seizures for transport were not intended to be enabled by the law.  The fate of a 500-hectare plot in Kaliningrad under military ownership is also discussed.