Privately Held Land in Russia Covers Territory Equivalent to Continental Europe

Land equivalent to the territory of continental Europe is held by private hands in Russia. This was announced yesterday at a press conference by Alexei Overchuk, the deputy head of the Federal Land Cadastre Agency. Overchuk said that individuals and corporations own 129 million hectares of land in Russia, which is 7.6% of the country's entire land. 92.4% of land is owned by the state or local authorities.

Overchuk said that 97% of privately held land is agricultural land. There are currently 43 million landowners in Russia, who register over 5.5 million land deals each year. The number of land sales in 2001 made up 6% of all deals involving land, although this figure has continued to rise since then.