Russian cabinet agrees discounted rates for businesses to buy out land.

(From BBC Monitoring International Reports)

The Russian government today approved a draft law setting discounted rates for businesses to buy out land which was given to them for free during privatization, Russian has TV reported. At a government meeting, Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref pointed out that Moscow, in violation of federal legislation, had so far not voluntarily sold a single plot of land. The draft law envisages that discounts applying to Moscow and St Petersburg will be different from those for the rest of the country. The following is the text of a report by Russian external TV service NTV Mir on 21 September:

[Presenter] Today three years of talks between the business world and the authorities over the price at which one would have to purchase land from the state for private enterprises and for housing construction have essentially been …