According to Zhores Medvedev, a Russian scientist, these mini-farms and private plots account for half Russian meat production and a third of dairy products, though they occupy less than 5% of all farmland.

ECONOMIST: Russia��s farms

Local officials can convert collectively owned rural plots into land for private development.

ECONOMIST: What makes local-government officials tick

This week the New York Times reported that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had once hired Blackwater, a private-security contractor, in connection with a plots to assassinate al-Qaeda operatives.

ECONOMIST: Private security contractors

Rather than breaking up big farms, he has speeded up the granting of land titles to rural squatters and bought up private holdings to sell on easy terms to those who lack plots.

ECONOMIST: The interim president enacts reforms