Russia drafts 10-year statute of limitations for privatization cases, with exceptions for anti-corruption and ‘extremism’ grounds

Russia’s government on April 16 approved and submitted to the State Duma a bill establishing a maximum 10-year statute of limitations for privatization cases. The bill has been published in the lower house’s database.

The bill would codify in the Civil Code general statutes of limitations for claims seeking to seize property privatized in violation of the law: three years from the moment a violation is identified, but no more than 10 years from the moment the property left state ownership. It would apply both to future claims and to cases already filed in which no court ruling has yet taken effect.

The bill’s explanatory note says that setting a 10-year ceiling would send a signal of property guarantees to entrepreneurs who had “developed and invested in enterprises for many years, even in cases where not all procedures were followed in accordance with the law when the property was privatized more than 10 years ago.”

The 10-year ceiling would not, however, apply to seizures brought on anti-corruption or “anti-extremism” grounds.

Current court practice does not take statutes of limitations into account in disputes over property privatized 15 to 30 years ago, the Economic Development Ministry noted. Lawyers polled by the Russian business daily Vedomosti explained that courts sometimes begin counting the limitations period not from when the asset left state ownership but from when the prosecutor’s office conducted an inspection, and sometimes apply no limitations period at all “without particular explanation,” making “certainty in the application of time limits” necessary.

Nationalization has been gaining momentum in Russia since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Initially it swept up assets belonging to Western companies that left Russia because of the war. The state then began seizing businesses from Russian entrepreneurs through claims brought by the Prosecutor General’s Office, on various grounds: violations during privatization, the owner’s foreign citizenship or residency status, and participation in “extremist” activity. In 2025 alone, the state took over assets belonging to Yuzhuralgold, Domodedovo airport, the creators of the Yashkino and Kiriyeshki brands, and others.

In October 2024, Russia’s Constitutional Court effectively abolished statutes of limitations for cases involving property acquired through corrupt means, though it clarified that the open-ended rule does not apply to cases based on privatization violations. In November 2025, entrepreneurs proposed that the Finance Ministry introduce a 10-year statute of limitations for privatized property. In February 2026, the Economic Development Ministry drafted a bill. Forbes Russia reported in late March, citing sources, that the government had approved it.