Property Rights and Transformations in Russia: Institutional Change in the Far North

Abstract

"Privatization of business enterprises is expanding rapidly in Russia, and land is next on the privatization agenda of USAID and the Russian Federation. But few have considered what form of property rights would be most appropriate in the northern regions of Russia where indigenous peoples and Russian old-timers are engaged in traditional activities of reindeer herding, hunting, trapping and fishing. This paper discusses the question of changing property rights with regard to personal property (reindeer), public enterprises (sovhozes), and land on the Yamal Peninsula, the homeland of Nenets reindeer herders as well as the locus of supergiant gas fields slated for rapid development."