simply mind-blowing
Rublyovka Has Been Bought UpMosleskhoz (the Moscow Region forestry authority) has published the results of the sell-off of 991 hectares (9.91 sq. km) of forest land outside Moscow. The winners, among them Alexander Shokhin and Roman Abramovich, say they were interested in the auction because they want to preserve the forests. The Mosleskhoz website has published the results of auctions at which rights to 49-year leases on 991 hectares (9.91 sq. km) of forest plots west of Moscow were sold. The auctions took place on December 18, 2007, and March 14, 2008. More This article in blogs[?]
chronikimarasma In particular, Alexander Shokhin, president of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, received 2 hectares (about 4.9 acres) next to his home in the Lesnaya Polyana settlement in Odintsovo District. He will pay 153,562 rubles for the lease rights. “I am concerned about the condition of the forest and have been trying for eight years to lease this plot in order to preserve it as forest,” Shokhin told Vedomosti. He considers the price—768 rubles per sotka (100 sq. m / 0.01 hectare)—reasonable: “I am not going to use the plot for commercial purposes.” ... In the same settlement, Olga Smorodskaya, president of the New Generation Foundation, won 66 sotkas (0.66 hectares / 1.63 acres) for 44,770 rubles (678 rubles per sotka). She also wants to preserve the forest. ... Actress Yulia Rutberg, who received 20 sotkas (0.2 hectares / 0.49 acres) in Stupino District for 8,938 rubles (447 rubles per sotka), declined to comment. ... Eco Vest LLC received 397 hectares in the Bakovsky forestry district for 24.39 million rubles (614 rubles per sotka). A source in the Ministry of Natural Resources told Vedomosti that this plot went to a company linked to Roman Abramovich. The market price of even the crummiest plot in Odintsovo District is no less than $5,000 per sotka. In the places being discussed here, it is no less than $20,000. These guys are buying at 700 rubles. Six hundred and fifty times cheaper. Of course, because they “want to preserve the forest.” A sacred cause. It’s wonderful to fence off thirty sotkas of forest next to your house and in that way “preserve” it. And then, who knows, maybe later the land-use designation can be quietly changed... I’d also very much like to “preserve a little forest.” Or even a lot, if it’s in Odintsovo District. At 700 rubles per sotka, I’d be ready to take a hundred hectares. I won’t be lazy: tomorrow I’ll send an inquiry from the ZM Committee to the Antimonopoly Service. Assuming they haven’t already opened a case themselves based on this publication. Let them cancel the damn thing.