On Monday Vladimir Putin will hold a session of the State Council of Russia devoted to the sale and purchase of agricultural land

Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a session of the State Council on Monday in the Kremlin which will be devoted to the sale and purchase of agricultural land. The sources of RIA Novosti in the apparatus of the State Council supposed that the discussion will be lively, but not too acute." The head of the working group of the Presidium of the State Council, which prepared this issue, Oryol Governor Yegor Stroyev, hopes that the session will be productive. Stroyev said this on Friday, commenting on the results of the State Council Presidium's session, at which its participants preliminarily discussed the sale and purchase of agricultural land and found compromise variants on a number of key contradictions. However, the opinion of the Presidium is a preliminary and recommending one. At the session of the State Council itself the governors can continue discussions, expressing their points of View. The main contradictions concern, in particular, the legally recognised sale and purchase as the only legal form of agricultural land turnover, the sale of agricultural land to foreigners, and the degree of concentration of agricultural land in the hands of one person. Apart from that, regional leaders express "persistent wishes" to attach a framework nature to the law and come out against the attempts "to regulate all the processes connected with the sale and purchase of agricultural land only by the federal law." As the sources in the apparatus of the State Council pointed out, the Kremlin "is ready for reasonable compromises" on all disputable questions and to work over the draft law "if the regional leaders substantiate their reproofs with regard to the government document. At the same time the Kremlin underscores that in the main issue, that is the necessity of the sale and purchase of land, there are no contradictions between the government and the regions. Apart from that, the President agrees with the governors in another thing. On Friday Vladimir Putin said at the session of the Presidium of the State Council that it is necessary "to take into consideration the diversity of conditions in the Russian regions and the heterogeneity of the types of lands." He expressed the opinion that "it is not only possible but also necessary to take into consideration the regional specific features." According to the data of RIA Novosti, the working group received 77 amendments to the draft law. During the discussions, alternative bills will also be taken into consideration. According to the information of RIA Novosti, at the end of March there were six variants of the draft law in the Lower House of parliament. Under the government draft law, priority rights to receive land will be given to the constituent members of the Russian Federation with the aim of taking into account traditions and the level of the development of the region. The draft law also provides for the use of agricultural lands according to their direct purpose. This term will be controlled by the regions themselves. All the sale and purchase deals will be done only through the regional authorities with priorities given to the members of the Russian Federation. The rights to purchase land by foreigners, in particular on border territories, will be limited.