A great amount of federal support has been pledged to Russian rural areas. On Friday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin spoke of expanding government plans to develop the Russian rural sector. Targeted federal programmes are said to have been extended from 2013 to 2020. There are plans to build more rural roads, support farmers who are starting out and help rural communities to distribute land plots and rural residents to register their ownership of them. In an attempt to prevent any further exodus from rural communities, these government initiatives may lead to an unexpected increase in the number of rural population. The government, however, has yet to calculate the cost of this innovation.
In his address at the 2nd National Forum of Rural Communities in the Republic of Mordovia, the prime minister talked about government plans to financially support rural communities. According to the prime minister, the targeted federal programme, "The development of Rural Communities," will be extended until 2020. Putin also reiterated that this programme has already been extended once until 2013. In the last eight years 40 billion roubles of federal funds have been allocated to develop rural areas; an additional 190 billion roubles have been received from regional budgets and off-budget sources. The funds were spent towards improving living conditions of rural residents, including housing construction for young families, providing villages with gas and water, and constructing education institutions. In 2011 alone 26 billion roubles have been allocated (8 billion from the federal budget) to meet these objectives.
The results of increased budgetary support to rural communities can be seen already; the 2010 National Census reveals an end of the rural exodus to the cities. Compared with 2002, the ratio of rural to city population practically remained at the same level -- 26% (37.6 million out of 143 million residents of Russia).
In the Republic of Mordovia Vladimir Putin said that the government will stay the course and rural communities will receive the funding. According to Putin, the government will designate approximately 7 billion roubles to build roads that would connect rural communities with the federal highway system. According to the prime minister, "over 46,000 towns and villages don't have hard-surface access roads." Putin proposed considering the specifics of Siberian and Far Eastern communities, where industry development indicators and other factors will affect the distribution of financial support. "In other words, we should use a differentiated approach to each particular region," Putin said.
In addition, Putin promised to launch a special federal programme by 2010 to support new farmers. According to the prime minister, everyone who wants to engage in agricultural production should receive a grant, a preferential investment loan and a settling-in allowance. At the same time, the government is planning to expand the programme to develop family dairy farms.
The prime minister also proposed to improve rural communities' ability to distribute land plots. According to him, land titles are not available for over half of state-owned lands. Putin suggested that regions should delegate the powers to manage these lands to the municipal authorities. He noted that rural authorities are obliged to provide people with full assistance in acquiring and registering property. The cadastral agencies should provide free information from the State Land Cadastre to the municipal authorities, including cadastral certificates, excerpts and area plans. At the same time, the municipal authorities are asked to provide all information involved in the preparation of land marking projects to the owners. Putin had no doubts in the efficiency of this mechanism.
Unclaimed land can now be distributed by rural communities themselves, according to the prime minister, and priority to cultivate vacant agricultural land should be given to those who engage in agricultural production and plan to set up a farm. Moreover, the purchasing price should be reduced from 20% to 15% of the plot's cadastral value. The prime minister also confirmed the government's resolve to set in law the transfer of plots of land for free fixed-term use by individuals who are already using them or plan to move to rural areas.
Putin also announced that families with three or more children will be entitled to a plot of land for free without having to go through bidding and auctions. In addition, he instructed the agencies responsible for such issues to do away with the contradictory land law that allows a housing title deemed escheated property to be transferred to the municipal authorities while the adjacent land becomes the property of the federal authorities. He promised compensation, using the federal budget, to reimburse farmers for about 50% of the cost of registering their ownership of land. The total cost of all the promises that the prime minister made to rural residents is has not been calculated yet.
His address came at the critical stage of the 2012-2015 budget planning. The Ministry of Finance has already made public its plans to cut federal spending in the next year by reducing agro-industrial and other expenses. However, personal directives put forth by the prime minister have yet to be factored in.
