In their appeal to the Constitutional Court, deputies of the Murmansk regional Duma argued that the Land Code had been adopted contrary to the will of one third of regional law-making bodies. Their appeal included information that the draft Land Code had aroused 35 negative assessments from federation members.
Judges of the Constitutional Court in particular established that conciliatory procedures in the adoption of federal laws were not obligatory, and therefore the lack of consent from some regions was not good enough reason for turning down the laws.
The authors of the complaint also disagreed with the provision allowing land plots sales to foreigners. The emphasis was made on the fact that in this case part of Russia's territory was allegedly passed over to other countries.
The Constitutional Court disagrees with this viewpoint.
"Selling a land plot to a private owner does not mean selling part of state territory but only a land plot as an object of civil rights, which does not undermine Russia's sovereignty and its territorial integrity," the Constitutional Court's statement runs.
