The session ‘Introducing agglomeration into the legal field’ will be moderated by Natalia Klimova, Head of the Organising Committee of the Kuzmin Council of Chief Architects of Russian Federation Subj

What is agglomeration?

Having appeared more than 100 years ago, this concept has been a subject of scientific research for a long time.

The first agglomerations in our country began to form in the times of the Soviet Union, and further development of these trends, associated with the growing importance of cities and the influence of urbanised areas, have already received in the new Russia.

The agglomeration process is a wave-like process, its intensity depends on many factors, including the development of transport infrastructure, which directly affects pendular migration, which is, in turn, one of the main signs of this phenomenon.

The Federal Law ‘On Strategic Planning’ (No. 172-FZ of 28.06.2014), adopted in 2014, outlined the main guidelines, and in 2019 the ‘Strategy for Spatial Development of the Russian Federation’ for the first time legally introduced the concepts of large and largest agglomerations.

In 2020, the Ministry of Economic Development prepared a package of draft laws aimed at legal regulation of the development of urban agglomerations and improvement of legal mechanisms for inter-municipal cooperation. The package included a draft federal law ‘On Urban Agglomerations’ and two draft laws designed to adjust related laws and amend the Civil Code of the Russian Federation in connection with the development of inter-municipal cooperation in agglomerations.The package was not approved.


How will the process of institutionalising the concept of ‘agglomeration’ develop further? And is the lack of comprehensive legislative regulation of agglomeration construction a blocking factor for the implementation of agglomeration development projects and improvement of management models?


We will discuss with experts the practices of Russian regions and examples from friendly countries.