‘All the regulating authority over the unlocated land has been transferred to municipalities when the corresponding law came into force on July 1, 2006. Yet if this land happens to be part of a regional capital, it has to be managed by the regional government. I would also like to emphasize that the older legislation says all the unlocated land is supposed to be managed by the regional government,’ Sverdlovsk Region Minister for State Property Management Alexei Molotkov announced at a press conference on April 23, 2007.

‘We have agreed with nearly all the city mayors that we’ll be given two to three days to consider their proposals because we would like to know exactly just how the land is managed and make sure it is done on legitimate terms. This scheme has been around for six months already, and there have been no complaints so far. This is why we decided to adopt the same scheme for Yekaterinburg, and I just don’t understand the hullabaloo around it,’ the Minister said.

‘We used to simply agree on the mayors’ proposals, but now we would like to take part in their development, since we have been fully empowered to administer and sum up all the data on land management in Sverdlovsk Region. In my view, this does not imply any drastic changes, and, anyways, neither the city council nor the regional government can run the business on their own. The bill on the joint management issue will be read in the regional House of Representative on April 26, 2007. The Ministry sent copies of the report to Sverdlovsk Region government and to the mayor of Yekaterinburg, but they haven’t replied yet.’