On 1 April 2025, Federal Law No. 52-FZ* “On Amending Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation” (“the Law”) was published. The Law introduces new requirements for the reclassification of agricultural land (excluding land in federal ownership) into other categories of land.

Currently, to initiate such a reclassification, the applicant must submit a petition to the executive body of the relevant region of the Russian Federation (“the authorised body”). Following the review of the petition, the authorised body issues an act approving the land reclassification. However, from 1 March 2026, when the Law comes into force, the procedure will become significantly more complex.

Under the new provisions, within one month of receiving a petition, the authorised body must submit a proposal for land reclassification to the head of the region.

If the head agrees with the proposal, he must then submit the corresponding legislative initiative to the regional legislative body.

The legislative body will consider the legislative initiative only once it has received an opinion from the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation (“the Ministry of Agriculture”). This opinion must be prepared within 20 working days. If no opinion is issued within this period, it is assumed that the Ministry of Agriculture has no objections.

If the legislative body approves the legislative initiative, it will adopt a regional law on land reclassification, based on which the authorised body will then issue the act on land reclassification.

Thus, in contrast to the current process, under the new procedure the authorised body issues a land reclassification act based on the adopted regional law, with the involvement of both the head of the relevant region and the Ministry of Agriculture. At each of these stages, the petition can be potentially refused.

The Law also clarifies the application of the general reclassification procedure described above to the most valuable category of agricultural land — farm land. Compared to the current regulations, the number of circumstances under which such land can be reclassified is significantly reduced. Specifically, the Law prohibits:

• reclassification of land included in the list of especially valuable, highly productive farm land, and
• reclassification of farm land for the extraction of widespread minerals.

These changes will take effect on 1 January 2027.

The Law does not specify the criteria that the various bodies involved should use when deciding whether to approve a reclassification. However, according to the explanatory note accompanying the draft Law, the primary objective should be to prevent further reduction in the total area of agricultural land. Therefore, further regulatory guidance and subordinate legislation are expected.

Overall, these changes appear likely to significantly complicate the process of reclassifying agricultural land for alternative uses. This will need to be taken into account when planning investment and construction projects, particularly when assessing the urban development potential of the respective land plots.

* In Russian

Authors:

Dmitry Bogdanov

Elena Foteeva