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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's parliament on Saturday backed a crucial
land code bolstering President Vladimir Putin's reforms by overturning
a Soviet-era ban on land sales.
Approval of the second reading of the legislation, fiercely opposed
by the Communist Party and their Agrarian allies, was the final
measure of the State Duma or lower house's spring session during
which many laws promoted by Putin were passed.
The State Duma plowed through more than 140 amendments to the
code, with liberals and pro-government parties fending off Communist
attempts to scuttle the legislation.
The code, under discussion for seven years in post-Soviet Russia,
does not concern farmland, a highly sensitive issue in a country
once subject to forced collectivization.
It must now be approved on a third reading, considered a formality,
at the Duma's autumn session. It will then be submitted to the
Federation Council (upper house) and signed into law by Putin.
The bill roused the fury of Communists who denounced the 1990s
sell-offs of industry, some at knock-down prices, under ex-president
Boris Yeltsin. They feared the law would lead to the country being
bought up by foreigners and wealthy Russians.
``He (Putin) is resolving in the same way the issue of land which
we have defended with our blood for thousands of years,'' Communist
leader Gennady Zyuganov said during the debate. ``You cannot watch
this dreadful scene without shaking in disgust.''
Zhores Alferov, Nobel physics prize winner and a Communist member
of parliament, urged the chamber to think hard.
``We are about to pass a law which will have worse consequences
than Chubais's privatisation,'' he said, referring to the head
of Yeltsin's privatisation plan, Anatoly Chubais.
Certain other categories of land, like forests, would also be
subject to restrictions. Current holders of small plots and country
homes will be able to purchase a single piece of land.
Foreigners's rights to buy land
Much of the final debate focused on the right of foreigners to
buy land, with deputies heeding a warning from Economic Development
Minister German Gref to keep such restrictions to a minimum.
Under the provisions adopted, foreigners will be able to buy
land except in areas such as border regions that will be defined
by presidential decrees. They will also be entitled to lease land.
``Such provisions will make Russia a more attractive place for
investors and facilitate economic growth,'' Gref, the bill's chief
proponent, was quoted as saying by Itar-Tass news agency.
Liberals had sought a quick passage of the measure despite Communist
vows to ask the Constitutional Court to declare the sitting illegal.
``This bill is simply too important for us not to pass it,''
said Vladimir Lukin of the liberal Yabloko party. ``It is linked
to the sort of country we want to have.''
The debate opened after the latest in a series of scuffles outside
the Duma's central Moscow building. Dozens of communists held
up banners and eggs and stones flew through the air.
Under Yeltsin, the Duma failed three times to pass a law overturning
a communist-era ban on land sales. The current bill was approved
at its first reading in June after debates in which members came
to blows and Gref was prevented from speaking.
Putin clearly wants key economic bills passed before he attends
the G8 summit of industrialized countries this month in the Italian
city of Genoa.
The Duma, working under pressure from the Kremlin and the government,
had passed other pieces of legislation on Friday.
These included the passage on the first reading of three bills
from a pension reform plan, which the deputies wanted to postpone
but had to consider after a stern warning from the Kremlin.
A bill on money laundering, passed on a third and final reading,
sought to boost Russia's efforts to escape a blacklist of states
fostering the movement of criminal cash. Putin also secured the
easy passage of legislation on currency liberalization.
Also passed at the session were a law on its second reading overhauling
Soviet-era criminal procedures for prosecutors and courts and
another on its first reading redefining the labor code.
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