Church Lobby Bids for Free Land Use

The reconstruction of churches by communities nationwide has been one of the most visible real estate developments of the past decade. What is less visible is that most church buildings, and all land under the buildings, remain state property.

When the new Land Code goes into effect on Jan. 1, churches, like all other private organizations, will either have to buy their land or pay rent on it -- a situation that church officials say would bankrupt thousands of Russian Orthodox parishes, monasteries and other religious groups.

That is, unless the Federation Council pushes through an amendment to the Land Code. The upper chamber is scheduled to vote Wednesday on whether to send the bill to the State Duma for consideration.

"Everybody understands that this issue was simply omitted when the Land Code was being developed," Interfax quoted Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov as saying last week. "The problem is evident and it has to be settled."

Mironov stressed that the bill pertains only to the land currently used by religious groups. It does not touch on a much more controversial issue -- the restitution of church property. That was not, however, the author's original intention.

The bill dates back to last summer, when the head of the Federation Council's agriculture committee, Ivan Starikov, made headlines by proposing the state return all land owned by the so-called traditional religions before the 1917 Revolution. The Russian Orthodox Church would stand to get some 3 million hectares of land.

Within days of the announcement, Starikov and the deputy speaker of the Federation Council, Valery Goreglyad, were received by Patriarch Alexy II, who thanked the senators but said the church wished only to get the titles to the land it currently uses.

Representatives of the Federation Council, the State Duma, the Cabinet and the Moscow Patriarchate formed a working group to draft the bill.

The amendments would make religious organizations eligible to use state land under their buildings free of charge. They also include a provision requiring that religious organizations be consulted in any local government discussions pertaining to their land.

"The rights of religious organizations were trampled upon," Starikov said in a telephone interview last week. "We are restoring their rights."

With more than 16,000 parishes and about 600 monasteries around Russia, the Russian Orthodox Church is the biggest land user among Russia's religious organizations. Church officials said they did not have the exact tally of land currently in use.

Unlike many East European countries, Russia does not have restitution laws. The Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000 asked President Vladimir Putin to consider giving the church a mutually agreed amount of real estate. No official response followed, but the request reportedly angered some Kremlin officials.

Last month, a new lobby group was formed to defend the interests of traditional religions in the early stages of legislation drafting.

Mironov said the Cabinet was consulted on the new bill, but it remains unclear how the government will react to its submission to the Duma.

Earlier this month, Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Kudrin advised the Duma not to pass legislation that would have allowed for free-of-charge privatization of land currently used by religious groups.