Russia offers free land to stop Arctic depopulation
- Published
Russia's Arctic population is shrinking as people move to the big cities
Russians will be able to able to get land free in the country's remote Arctic as part of government plans to stop depopulation, expanding a similar programme for the Far East.
Under a scheme announced by the Ministry for Development of the Russian Far East and Arctic, people will be apply to use up to one hectare (2.5 acres) of land free of charge for five years, the Kommersant newspaper reports (in Russian), external.
After that period is up, they can either buy the plot, or take out a 49-year lease. The plot can be used as land to build a house on, for farming or for running a business.
Initially, only residents of the regions where plots are available will be able to apply, but after six months this will be extended to all Russian citizens, the RIA Novosti news agency reports, external.
Russia's Arctic territories have become a priority for Moscow in recent years, amid hopes that climate change could free up the Northern Sea Route that links the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
It is investing millions in plans for nuclear-powered ice-breakers and to develop port infrastructure in the region.
'A hectare of permafrost'
Some 2.5 million people currently live in Russia's vast Arctic zone, according to RIA Novosti, but this number has been falling constantly since the collapse of the Soviet Union, as people leave to seek better opportunities in Russia's big cities.
As a result of the outflow, cities where 90% of the region's population lives are shrinking and left with unused infrastructure, the ministry says.
An existing programme to hand out free hectares of land in Russia's Far East has so far had mixed results.
Only 83,000 people have applied for the Far Eastern scheme since it was launched in 2016, most of them locals, according to Kommersant.
The new programme will encompass Murmansk Region, which borders on Norway, as well as two regions stretching along Russia's long Arctic coastline: the Nenets Autonomous Area in European Russia and the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area in Siberia.
It will also apply to 23 municipalities scattered across four other Arctic regions.
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Unlike the Far Eastern programme, local authorities, and not the government in Moscow, will decide on what land to distribute, and will be allowed to allocate plots close to urban centres.
This appears to be in response to criticism that much of the land handed out in the Far East was too remote to be useful.
A tolerance of long Arctic nights and sub-zero temperatures will be a must for applicants
"It's important to give people the opportunity to choose the land they actually need and which is easy to bring under cultivation," Sergei Khovrat, the head of a recruitment agency specialising in attracting qualified staff to the Far East and the Arctic, told RIA Novosti.
News of the plans is already attracting mockery from Kremlin critics, who had already derided the Far Eastern land scheme as a misguided PR project that did little to help the many Russians coping with poor living standards.
"This is not a joke," says one popular anonymous pro-opposition account, external. "Russians will not be able to get their share from the selling off of the country's wealth. But a hectare of permafrost beyond the Arctic Circle - be our guest."
Reporting by Adam Robinson
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