From the February 2008 Idaho Observer:

Putin has indicated full support of Dimitri Medvedev for the post of President of the Russian Federation. Medvedev, who is presently First Deputy Prime Minister has indicated enthusiastic support for the concept of eco-villages. Medvedev will be the candidate of the Edinaya Rossiya Party.

Medvedev expressed his support of the concept of eco-villages in a March 5, 2007 online conference organized by the newspaper Izvestia and the internet portal Yandex and broadcast by TV channel "Vesti-24." During the interview the host suggested that the outlook of the nation is shifting. Medvedev replied, "Yes, and [the] psychology is changing too. People feel themselves in a completely different way."

The host stated that the question of eco-villages was brought up because he had received 5,000 emails from supporters of the "Kin Domains" concept before the show asking about the plan to give each Russian family a hectare of public land to create a Kin Domain and the allowance for them to be organized into eco-villages.

The idea of "Kin Domains," greatly expands, in time and space, the tradition of families having a rural plot, called dachas, where they relax in the summer and grow gardens. The idea has grown out of a series of books by Vladimir Megre which feature the contemporary Russian-Siberian eco-mystic, Anastasia (www.ringingcedars.com).

The Anastasia eco-spiritual movement has organized in most major Russian cities and has its own political party that is aligned with the parties supporting Putin. The books have also sparked eco-village organizing in many countries in Asia, Eastern Europe, Western Europe and the English speaking countries. The basic idea of the Kin Domain is for each family to live self-sufficiently on their domain using Permaculture concepts, while those that choose, can organize their plots into eco-villages that feature crafts and local production.

Land offered

Medvedev speaks of the district of Belgorod Oblast, near the Ukraine border that he has visited, where political moves are already under way toward arranging land for this idea in that area.

"Thus the idea of Kin’s Domains in this regard is absolutely positive and it is related to the idea of low-rise construction. By the way, those processes are going quite well in some regions. Let’s take, for example, the Belgorod oblast. I happened to drop by into one of the offices with the governor. This office is in charge of registration of paperwork for the land and I was surprised in a good way by the price for land. Not too much, not one hectare yet. However, enough for building projects. They offered about 2,500 sq.m, if I’m not mistaken. And the price for this land in today’s Russia sounds almost "funny" - something around 10-15 thousand roubles ($300-$400 USD). So one can get such piece of land but on certain terms and conditions: Within 5 years there must be a house built there. And for three years this house can’t be sold so as not to allow any profiteering."

On Oct. 4, 2007, Russian journalist Tatiana Burdakova of the Rossiyskaya Gazeta spotlighted the distinction of the kin’s domain concept from simply being a "farmer: The Siberians use the term "kin’s domain" to emphasize the distinction between these estates and the usual cottage settlements. This is not a field that developers have carved up into parcels of 10 or 20 acres and begun to build luxury homes to order for city folk, these are not farmers’ residences existing solely for the purpose of profit from agriculture, but precisely domains, in which a large family can arrange its way of life according to its own taste.

During the interview, Medvedev indicated to the supporters that he understood the deeper meaning of the Kin Domains. He said, "Of course, I know them. Moreover, if you do not take into account some elements, related to how those questions take shape and what first, second and third level of sense they have, the whole idea of kin’s domains as it has been worded here is positive in general."

In his statement of support, Putin said about Medvedev, "There is no shame and no fear involved in transferring the primary reins for the running of the country, the fate of Russia, into the hands of a person like this."

William H. Kotke, author of the books, Garden Planet: The Present Phase Change of the Human Species

and The Final Empire: The Collapse of Civilization and the Seed of the Future www.thefinalempirebook.com.