Land Code (No. 136-FZ of 2001).

The present Land Code and other legislative acts issued in accordance with it are based upon the following principles: 1) consideration of the importance of land as the basis of vital and economic activity of man and at the same time as immovable property, object of the right of ownership and other land rights; 2) priority of protection of land as the main environmental component in accordance with consideration of land as immovable property that that guarantees to the owner the right of ownership, possession and disposal of land freely on condition that it does not cause damage environmental damage; 3) priority ensuring decision-making and carrying out such types of activity that ensure protection of human life and prevention of negative impact on it; 4) unity of destination of the plots of land and objects strictly connected with them; 5) priority of conservation of particularly precious land and protected areas; 6) charged use of land except for cases envisaged by Federal and regional legislation; 7) purposeful sub-division of land in accordance with predestination of certain categories of land; 8) delimitation of state property on land by sub-division of land into federal, regional and municipal land; 9) differentiated legal status with the consideration of natural, social, economic and other factors; 10) consideration of legitimate public interests and interests of single individuals ensuring the right of each citizen to free ownership, use and disposal of the plots of land owned by him. The Federal Law consists of 18 Chapters that contain 103 articles. Chapter 1 (arts. 1-11) lays down general provisions. Chapter 2 (arts. 12-14) regards protection of land. Chapter 3 (arts. 15-19) regards ownership of land. Chapter 4 (arts. 20-24) regards permanent (open-ended) use, life-long inherited possession of the plots of land, limited use of neighbouring plots of land (servitude), lease of the plots of land, fixed-period use of the plots of land free-of-charge. Chapter 5 (arts. 25-39) deals with the origin of the right of land ownership. Chapter 6 (arts. 40-43) establishes the rights and the duties of the owners of the plots of land, land tenants, landlords and lessees in the process of usufruct of the plots of land. Chapter 7 (arts. 44-56) regards cessation and limitation of land rights. Chapter 8 (arts. 57-58) regards compensation of damages and losses of the producers of agricultural commodities and forestry in case of expropriation of the plots of land for state and municipal needs. Chapter 9 (arts. 59-64) regards protection of land rights and dispute settlement. Chapter 10 (arts. 65-66) deals with land charges and land valuation. Chapter 11 (arts. 67-70) regards land monitoring, land survey and state land cadastre. Chapter 12 (arts. 71-73) regards supervision over the observance of land legislation, protection and use of land (land control). Chapter 13 (arts. 74-76) establishes liability for the offences in the sphere of protection and use of land. Chapter 14 (arts. 77-82) regards agricultural land. Chapter 15 (arts. 83-86) regards urban land. Chapter 16 (arts. 87-93) regards lands of industry, energy, transport, communications, broadcasting, television, information service, outer space activity, defence land, security and other special use land. Chapter 17 (arts. 94-100) regards land of protected territories and objects. Chapter 18 (arts. 101-103) regards forest land, water land and reserve land. In order to protect land, possessors of land plots, land users, landowners and land tenants are obliged to carry out activities for: (a) reproduction of the fertility of agricultural lands; (b) protection of land from water and wind erosion, mudflows, flooding, waterlogging, secondary salinization, desiccation, compaction, pollution by chemical substances, including radioactive, other substances and microorganisms, pollution by industrial and domestic waste and other negative impact; and (c) protecting agricultural land from overgrowing with trees and shrubs, weeds, preservation of reclamation protective forest plantations, maintaining the achieved level of land reclamation. Public servitude can be imposed for the performance of drainage and land reclamation works on a land plot. Lease agreement for a land plot pertaining to state or municipal property, can be concluded without bidding in case of allotment of a plot of land for aquaculture. In order to establish the value of a land plot shall be performed cadastre land evaluation.