Land dual power — a Nizhny Novgorod term for the situation in which land in the city is controlled not by the city but by the region. It took shape in the second half of the 2000s against the backdrop of the standoff between Governor Valery Shantsev and Mayor Vadim Bulavinov, when authority over land plots whose state ownership had not been delineated passed to the regional government, while the city hall retained responsibility for approvals, utilities, and social infrastructure. The legal framework has changed twice since then, yet the division itself persists as of 2026: under the general federal rule, the city would control such land, but the region reclaimed that authority through its own law.[1][2]
How it is structured legally
The dispute of the mid-2000s rested on an earlier version of the federal law enacting the Land Code: the right to dispose of undelineated land in the administrative center of a federal subject was vested in the region. It was precisely this provision that the regional prosecutor's office invoked when it succeeded in having overturned the amendments that had extended the region's authority to all municipalities.
A new framework has been in force since 1 March 2015. Article 3.3, introduced by Federal Law No. 171-FZ of 23 June 2014, assigned the provision of undelineated land to the local self-government body of the urban okrug — that is, to the city as a general rule.[1]
At the same time, however, regions were given a tool for redistributing powers. Under Nizhny Novgorod Region Law No. 197-Z of 23 December 2014, adopted by the Legislative Assembly on 18 December 2014 and signed by Governor Shantsev, a portion of local self-government powers was transferred to the regional government — and transferred "for an indefinite period." The law entered into force on 1 January 2015, two months before the federal provision that would otherwise have returned land authority to the city.[2]
What remained with the city
Under the current version of the regional law, the regional government provides land plots within the territory of the urban okrug of the city of Nizhny Novgorod, with several exceptions. The city retains authority over plots provided to citizens for individual residential construction, personal subsidiary farming, gardening and market gardening, individual garages and garage cooperatives, certain cases involving peasant (farming) households, and plots within built-up areas covered by a development agreement.[2]
The basic regional law on land relations — No. 192-Z of 13 December 2005 — has not gone away and has been rewritten more than a dozen times: through amendments in 2008, 2009, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023.[3] It merely establishes that plots are provided either by the authorized executive body of the region or by local self-government bodies, with the redistribution law determining which of the two applies.
The urban-planning dimension
Over time, urban planning was added to the land question. A separate article of the regional redistribution law introduces "agglomeration" powers: in the interest of uniform approaches to urban-planning activity and the development of the potential of the Nizhny Novgorod Agglomeration — uniting Nizhny Novgorod, Dzerzhinsk, and the Bogorodsky and Kstovsky districts — the regional government assumed responsibility for master plans, land-use and development regulations, territorial planning documentation, urban-planning land-plot specifications, construction permits and commissioning permits, and decisions on integrated territorial development.[2]
In this sphere, municipalities have retained responsibility for organizing and conducting public discussions and public hearings.[2]
How the amendments have evolved
On March 31, 2016, during the discussion of amendments to the redistribution law, deputies of the Legislative Assembly voted in favor of a provision they had just criticized, restoring urban planning powers to cities with populations exceeding one hundred thousand — but not to Nizhny Novgorod. The Speaker attributed this to the chamber's fatigue; a Kommersant piece on the episode ran under the headline "A Glitch in Their Heads."[4]
On December 15, 2016, the Legislative Assembly passed the law on the redistribution of urban planning powers in two readings — 49 deputies voted in favor. Control over undelimited lands remained with the regional government, with the exception of plots designated for individual housing construction, personal subsidiary and farm holdings, and agricultural production. The chair of the relevant committee, Andrey Tarasov, acknowledged at the time that "problematic issues remain" with regard to undelimited lands: plots intended for individual construction fall under the jurisdiction of both the municipality and the region.[5]
The law continued to be amended — in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022; the amending law of December 27, 2022, No. 210-Z lists the entire series of preceding revisions, and some earlier provisions are marked as having lapsed in 2017, 2023, and 2024.[6]
How the Dual Power Came About
The arrangement under which the region controls city land did not arise from a single decision but from a chain of steps. In autumn 2005, local government heads signed agreements with the Governor on the joint exercise of land-relations powers, effectively transferring the right to allocate plots to the regional government; municipalities retained only parcels smaller than two hundred square meters.[7]
In July 2006, the Regional Legislative Assembly, after lengthy debate, adopted a version of the law "On the Regulation of Land Relations in Nizhny Novgorod Region" that granted the regional government broad rights over plots whose state ownership had not been delimited — which constitutes the bulk of all land. On February 28, 2008, the Legislative Assembly of Nizhny Novgorod Region adopted a new version of the law "On the Regulation of Land Relations in Nizhny Novgorod Region" in its second and final reading: amendments approved in the first reading back on May 22, 2007, expanded the region's powers — adding to those already held the right to determine the feasibility of developing built-up areas within Nizhny Novgorod and to set the starting price at auctions for developed plots.
The same law provided for the transfer of all originals of active land lease agreements concluded between the city administration and property owners to the body authorized by the regional government — the Ministry of State Property; Mayor Vadim Bulavinov warned deputies before the hearings that the law violated federal legislation, but was not heard, and the chair of the agricultural affairs committee, Nikolay Shkilev, called the adopted law "a compromise between the regional government and the City Hall."[8][8] The regional prosecutor's office concluded that the law contradicted federal law: under the Land Code, the region's authority extends only to the administrative center of the subject, that is, to Nizhny Novgorod itself, and not to all municipal formations. The amendments were repealed and the rights were returned to local government heads — to all of them except the Mayor of Nizhny Novgorod.[7]
The result was described as dual power: the region controls city land, while the City Hall handles utility connections, zoning, technical documentation, and social infrastructure — all of which are indispensable to make a plot usable. The chair of the relevant Legislative Assembly committee, Alexander Serikov, had warned deputies of exactly this fork in the road back when the amendments were being debated.[7]
Land as Money and Power
The dispute was not about legal arrangements but about revenue. Each new city administration began by revisiting land relations: Mayor Vadim Bulavinov, upon taking charge of the city in 2002, rescinded some of his predecessors' orders on plot allocations and terminated several dozen agreements with investors — ones that, in the City Hall's assessment, had been concluded behind closed doors and on terms unfavorable to the city. The underlying mechanism, however, did not change: what mattered was a developer's proximity to power, and pricing remained opaque.[7]
City levies for approvals and resident resettlement could reach a quarter of a project's total cost — on top of the price of the plot itself; developers could additionally be required to make an investment contribution ranging from landscaping a small park to resettling residents and demolishing dilapidated buildings. Valery Shantsev also turned to revising land law as soon as he took up the post of Governor in 2005: the city was becoming attractive to investors and ranked just behind Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg in housing prices.[7]
The promised "one-stop shop," which was supposed to reduce document processing from several years to two or three months, has done nothing to improve the situation: the decision to allocate a plot is made by the investment council under the Governor, while zoning, registration, and technical documentation remain with the municipality, which has its own rules — and "Vodokanal" and "Teploenergo" impose their own conditions on top of that.[7]
The rules of the game are clear, but often difficult to follow. The investment council under the Governor decides on the allocation of a plot, while zoning, registration, and the issuance of technical documentation fall within the powers of the municipal authority, which operates by its own rules.
Sources
- consultant.ru — ConsultantPlus — Article 3.3 of Federal Law No. 137-FZ of 25 October 2001 "On the Enactment of the Land Code of the Russian Federation" (archive)
- nnovpravo.ru — Legal Acts of Nizhny Novgorod Region — Law of Nizhny Novgorod Region of 23 December 2014 No. 197-Z "On the Redistribution of Certain Powers"
- nnovpravo.ru — Legal Acts of Nizhny Novgorod Region — Law of Nizhny Novgorod Region of 13 December 2005 No. 192-Z "On the Regulation of Land Relations in Nizhny Novgorod Region"
- Kommersant (Volga Region) — A Breakdown in Minds: Deputies of the Legislative Assembly and Urban Planning Powers (archive)
- MK — Nizhny Novgorod — Moskovsky Komsomolets in Nizhny Novgorod — Nizhny Novgorod Municipalities Gain a Voice and Land (archive)
- nnovpravo.ru — Legal Acts of Nizhny Novgorod Region — Law of Nizhny Novgorod Region of 27 December 2022 No. 210-Z on Amendments to the Law on the Redistribution of Powers
- Galina Shcherbo, Ekspert magazine — Dual Power over Land, No. 11, 2008
- Kommersant (Volga Region) — On 28 February 2008, the Legislative Assembly of Nizhny Novgorod Region adopted in its second and final reading a new version of the law "On the Regulation of Land Rel