Major Russian Legislation Changes For 2014

Amendments to the RF Land Code or "Land Reform"

Federal Law of the Russian Federation No. 171-FZ on Amendments to the Russian Federation Land Code and Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation ("171-FZ") of June 23, 2014 171-FZ makes substantial amendments to the RF Land Code and other RF legislative acts. The amendments are effective from March 1, 2015. We describe a number of the amendments below.

Allocation of state and municipal land plots

First, 171-FZ disallows the sale of state and municipal land plots for which the primary permitted use is construction of buildings and structures. Such land plots may be allocated for construction by transfer under lease to future developers. A specific list of exemptions is provided in the RF Land Code ("RF LC").