The Constitutional Court of Russia confirmed the possibility of calculating the statute of limitations for claims to seize previously privatized property from the date of completion of a prosecutorial review

By Rulings No. 913-O and 914-O dated April 14, 2025, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation refused to accept for consideration the complaints of the companies “Mirazh” and “Geaton,” which challenged the provisions of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation regarding the application of limitation periods in disputes over the return of privatized property to public ownership. The reason was a claim for the de-privatization of medical-sanitary buildings transferred into private ownership during the privatization of a state enterprise in 1994 and later used with deviation from their original purpose.

The Constitutional Court indicated that the starting point of the statute of limitations is determined taking into account the totality of factual circumstances, including the date when the public entity learned or should have learned about the violation. Thus, the starting point is the completion of the prosecutorial review, and not the privatization itself. The Court also emphasized that a change of ownership does not terminate the obligation to preserve the designation of a socially significant object.

Earlier, in Ruling No. 49-P dated October 31, 2024, the Court stated that the period of limitations for a prosecutor’s claim to transfer to the state ownership property received as a result of corrupt transactions or in violation of requirements imposed on persons holding publicly significant positions, is not established.

This ruling confirms the Court’s trend toward establishing the priority of public interest over private interest and allows state bodies to challenge privatization transactions even decades later. For business, this means that formal long-term ownership of an asset does not guarantee protection of property rights if violations of privatization conditions are established.

In view of the above, when intending to acquire previously privatized assets, it is recommended to thoroughly examine not only the chain of transactions but also the compliance with the original privatization conditions. Special attention should be paid to obligations regarding the intended use of the property, since they will remain in force with respect to new owners.