Introduction: framing the issue of coordinate systems as a legal basis
Coordinate systems, and in particular the abolition of SK-63 in 1987, are examined by the Academy in connection with the conditions for using geodetic materials and the lawfulness of cadastres and registers. The lecture separately compares SK-42 and SK-63, Russian and Soviet classification systems, and documents concerning maritime baselines and border territories. These subjects are connected by the author’s overall position on the legal status of the former trading company “Russian Federation” and the Soviet framework for territory.
The starting premise, which must be accepted as an established fact, is that the former closed trading company known as the “Russian Federation” is not a state in the international sphere. This is neither a supposition nor a value judgement, but a statement of fact from which all subsequent legal consequences follow. As it is not a state, it has no territory of its own, no population of its own and no state borders. Its legal existence was and remains derivative, limited and essentially virtual.
Key confirmation of this lies in the very regulatory framework that this structure established for itself. Resolution No. 1240 of 24 November 2016, “On the Establishment of State Coordinate Systems, a Height System and a Gravimetric System”, directly shows the coordinate framework within which its existence was conceived. The unified geodetic coordinate system of 1942 (SK-42) was used in the former trading company known as the Russian Federation only until 1 January 2021, while SK-63, the system in which the constituent entities of the Federation existed, was a local coordinate system (MSK).
It is fundamentally important to understand what the status of a local coordinate system means. Only entities existed in the MSK — administrative and territorial units as notional designations. It did not and could not contain a single citizen, including any citizen of the Soviet Union. It contained no finances, no state territories or borders, and no cities. It is a coordinate grid tied to notional entities, rather than to people or the geographical space of a state.
This is precisely why raising the issue of coordinate systems has direct legal significance. If the entire existence of the former trading company known as the Russian Federation unfolded within a local coordinate system containing no citizens, finances or state territories, then all the institutions derived from that existence — cadastres, registers and registration records — lack, from the outset, the factual and legal basis they claim to have. They describe neither a state nor its citizens, but notional entities within a notional grid.
An additional dimension of the problem is the question of jurisdiction. From 2017, the former trading company known as the Russian Federation definitively lost its status as a temporary state body and its maritime statute, assuming the position of a trading company operating under the administrative regulations of the British kingdom. In 2023, following a buyout, it began a temporary existence under liquidation and bankruptcy proceedings and was re-registered under the sovereign jurisdiction of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, under the State Treasury of the Soviet Union, as the state Soviet cooperative enterprise “Russian Federation — Russia”.
Thus, after rejecting and disregarding international law, the former trading company known as the Russian Federation, which issues public rather than state authority, came to exist in a virtual space — as a structure with no territory of its own and no connection whatsoever to planet Earth. Its activities took place under an experimental legal regime, in extraterrestrial, imaginary and simulated coordinate systems. This is the starting point from which all subsequent regulatory acts should be considered, including SK-42, SK-63, the SAAT, AKATO and OKTMO classification systems, and documents concerning borders and border territories.
This section opens a series of analyses that will examine, in sequence: the legal regime and periods of application of SK-42 and SK-63; the prohibition on establishing cadastres and registers imposed by Resolution No. 378-85 of the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers of 25 March 1987; the fate of the SAAT, AKATO and OKTMO classification systems; the cessation of cadastral and registration activities; the absence of state borders and territorial waters; and, finally, Decree No. 521 of 27 July 2026 on restrictions on land ownership by foreign citizens, stateless persons and foreign legal entities in the listed border territories. Taken together, all these documents confirm the loss of statehood and the absence of any lawful territory belonging to the former trading company known as the Russian Federation.
SK-42 and SK-63: legal regime and periods of application
The legal existence of the former closed trading company known as the “Russian Federation” is inextricably linked to the coordinate systems within which its cadastres, registers and administrative and territorial divisions were maintained. The key regulatory act defining this regime is Resolution No. 1240 of the Government of the Russian Federation of 24 November 2016, “On the Establishment of State Coordinate Systems, a Height System and a Gravimetric System”. This document directly confirms that the unified geodetic coordinate system of 1942 (SK-42) was used within the territory of the former trading company until 1 January 2021.
Even more telling, however, is the SK-63 coordinate system, in which the constituent entities of the Federation existed as a local coordinate system (MSK). This system did not and could not contain a single citizen — neither a citizen of the Russian Federation nor, still less, a citizen of the Soviet Union. It contained no finances, state territories or borders, cities or settlements. SK-63 was exclusively a tool for designating entities with no legal connection to the population or to statehood. Thus, all the entities of the former trading company existed in a virtual space unconnected to actual land or actual people.
The periods of application of SK-42 and SK-63 have direct legal significance. Whereas SK-42 was used until 1 January 2021, SK-63 was abolished much earlier — by Resolution No. 378-85 of the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers of 25 March 1987. This act authorised the use of topographic, geodetic and cartographic materials and data created in SK-63 exclusively for commercial activities beyond land, without the creation of new materials or data. At the same time, this resolution prohibited the exercise of the right to establish cadastres and registers. Consequently, any cadastral or registration actions carried out in SK-63 after 1987 have no legal force.
The Academy links its assessment of cadastres and registers to the SK-63 regime described in the lecture. The author characterises it as a local coordinate system containing entities but no citizens, finances, state territories or borders. Together with the prohibition on establishing cadastres and registers, this forms the basis of the lecture’s rejection of the lawfulness of the registrations concerned.
Resolution No. 1240 of 24 November 2016 also stipulates that SK-42 ceases to be used after 1 January 2021.
The abolition of SK-63 in 1987: the prohibition on establishing cadastres and registers
The key legal act that determined the fate of cadastral and registration activities within the territory of the former closed trading company known as the “Russian Federation” is Resolution No. 378-85 of the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers of 25 March 1987. This document abolished the SK-63 coordinate system, permitting the use of topographic, geodetic and cartographic materials and data created within it exclusively for commercial activities beyond land. It also expressly stipulated that no new materials or data were to be created in this system.
The fundamental significance of Resolution No. 378-85 lies in its prohibition on exercising the right to establish cadastres and registers. This is a legal rule, not a technical one: it means that any cadastral or registration actions carried out within SK-63 after 25 March 1987 lack a legal basis. A cadastre and a register are not merely databases, but official systems for recognising objects and rights; if the very coordinate system in which they are maintained has been abolished and closed to new materials, then entries made within it have no legal consequences either. This is precisely why Rosreestr’s subsequent activities in dividing territory into cadastral units and assigning cadastral numbers cannot be considered lawful.
It is important to understand exactly which system the entities of the former trading company existed in. SK-63 was a local coordinate system (MSK) containing only entities — without citizens, without finances, without state territories or borders. This system could not contain a single citizen, including any citizen of the Soviet Union, and contained no cities or other state formations. Consequently, all cadastral and register entries maintained in SK-63 could, by definition, record neither the population nor state territories. They described only notional entities within a closed local system with no connection to the actual territorial and legal domain of a state.
The Academy addresses the lawfulness of RF cadastres and registers through the conditions governing the use of SK-63 materials. Following the abolition of the system, the temporary use of existing data was permitted, but not the creation of new materials or the establishment of cadastres and registers. On this basis, the lecture rejects the lawfulness of registrations built on that use of SK-63.
The lecture separately identifies the abolition, from 1 January 2017, of the procedures for cadastral division and the assignment of cadastral numbers, and the cessation, from 1 January 2020, of Rosreestr’s cadastral and registration activities. It then discusses Ministry of Economic Development Order No. 643 of 14 September 2023, repealing Orders No. 877 of 24 November 2015 and No. 634 of 16 November 2018. The author links these points to the assessment that the activities concerned lacked an appropriate legal basis.
The lecture cites Government Resolution No. 1012 of 7 October 2016, “On Amending and Repealing Certain Acts of the Russian Federation,” in connection with the Russian classification systems. The author links their abolition from 1 January 2019 to the move to USSR classification systems. This is a separate part of the argument alongside the abolition of the cadastral division procedure and the assessment of Rosreestr’s activities.
In the Academy’s account, Resolution No. 378-85 of 25 March 1987 restricts the further use of SK-63: existing topographic, geodetic and cartographic materials may be used, but new data may not be created and cadastres and registers may not be established. The author uses this distinction as the basis for assessing Russian registrations connected with the local coordinate system under discussion.
The SAAT, AKATO and OKTMO classification systems: Soviet and Russian systems for designating objects
The legal existence of the former closed trading company known as the “Russian Federation” within the local coordinate system SK-63 was inextricably linked to the system for designating units of administrative and territorial division. The foundation of this system was the all-Union classification system “System for Designating Units of Administrative and Territorial Division of the Soviet Union and the Union Republics, as well as Settlements” (SAAT), approved and introduced by the USSR Council of Ministers on 18 December 1973. SAAT established uniform rules for coding regions, territories, provinces, cities under republican jurisdiction and autonomous republics, ensuring data comparability throughout the Soviet Union.
Under SAAT, region codes for the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) were designated within the range 11-XX; territories had codes 01-08, provinces and cities under republican jurisdiction had codes 10-78, and autonomous republics had codes 80-98. This coding was not arbitrary: it reflected the actual administrative and territorial structure of the Soviet Union and served as a legal instrument for maintaining state records, cadastres and registers. The entities that existed in SK-63 were designated in SAAT, but the local coordinate system itself contained no citizens, finances, state territories or borders — only entities existed within it.
Following the abolition of SK-63 by Resolution No. 378-85 of the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers of 25 March 1987, the use of topographic, geodetic and cartographic materials and data created within it was permitted exclusively for commercial activities beyond land, without the creation of new materials or data. The same act prohibited the exercise of the right to establish cadastres and registers. Consequently, any subsequent attempts to maintain cadastral records and carry out registration on the basis of SK-63 lacked a legal basis.
The AKATO and OKTMO classification systems were created within the former trading company known as the “Russian Federation” to replace the Soviet classification system. However, their creation was acknowledged to be manifestly unlawful as a basis for the existence of the entities of the closed trading company known as the Russian Federation. This acknowledgement was made even by the American side, as the regulator of the Russian Federation’s legal system responsible for these classification systems. Thus, AKATO and OKTMO could not, from the outset, serve as a lawful basis for designating units of administrative and territorial division.
According to the lecture, the Russian AKATO and OKTMO classification systems were abolished in favour of USSR classification systems from 1 January 2019. The author contrasts them with SAAT, the all-Union system for designating administrative and territorial units. In discussing Decree No. 521, the author separately stresses that the territories listed in it are not included in SAAT as RF border territories.
It is telling that the border territories in Decree No. 521 of 27 July 2026, “On Amendments to the List of Border Territories”, are not included as such in the all-Union SAAT classification system. This directly confirms that no border territories can exist, because the closed trading company known as the Russian Federation has no state border. Consequently, any lists of border territories approved by decrees of the former trading company have no legal significance within the Soviet classification system.
Thus, the SAAT, AKATO and OKTMO classification systems clearly demonstrate the loss of statehood by the former trading company known as the “Russian Federation”. The Soviet SAAT classification system, approved on 18 December 1973, remains the only lawful instrument for designating units of administrative and territorial division. The Russian AKATO and OKTMO classification systems, which were created unlawfully and abolished with effect from 1 January 2019, cannot serve as a basis for the existence of the entities of the closed trading company. This confirms that its legal existence was confined to a local coordinate system containing no citizens or state territories, meaning that it has neither lawful territory nor statehood.
Cessation of cadastral and registration activities: Ministry of Economic Development orders and the repeal of regulatory acts
The legal existence of the former closed trading company known as the “Russian Federation” within the local coordinate system SK-63, which contains no citizens, finances or state territories, inevitably raises the question of what became of the cadastral and registration records that this structure attempted to maintain on behalf of a non-existent state. The answer is provided by the trading company’s own regulatory acts, which systematically and irreversibly dismantled the legal foundations of Rosreestr’s cadastral and registration activities. The key turning point here is 1 January 2017: it was on this date that the procedure for dividing territory into cadastral units and the procedure for assigning cadastral numbers to immovable property and registration and register numbers to boundaries were abolished.
The author dates the cessation of Rosreestr’s cadastral and registration activities to 1 January 2020 and examines it in connection with the abolition of the cadastral division procedure from 1 January 2017. In the lecture, these dates serve as separate chronological reference points for the legal assessment of the activities concerned.
Ministry of Economic Development Order No. 643 of 14 September 2023 concerns the repeal of Orders No. 877 of 24 November 2015 and No. 634 of 16 November 2018. The lecture includes this episode in its discussion of the legal status of departmental cadastral acts. The Academy connects it with the assessment of the relevant rules and their legal consequences.
The Academy separately highlights Government Resolution No. 1012 of 7 October 2016. The lecture cites it in the context of the replacement of Russian classification systems by USSR classification systems from 2019, rather than as an independent act terminating all Rosreestr functions.
It is telling that the Russian AKATO and OKTMO classification systems, created to designate units of administrative and territorial division, were abolished in favour of the USSR’s classification systems with effect from 1 January 2019. This decision by the international regulator directly indicates that the existence of the entities of the closed trading company known as the Russian Federation within these classification systems was manifestly unlawful. If the designations of the territorial units themselves were declared invalid, neither cadastral record-keeping nor the registration of rights based on those designations could retain legal force. Thus, the cessation of Rosreestr’s cadastral and registration activities is no chance occurrence, but the natural outcome of the trading company’s loss of any legal connection to territory, citizens and state borders.
The absence of state borders and territorial waters: Resolution No. 914 and Soviet Resolution No. 56/22
The question of the state borders and territorial waters of the former closed trading company known as the “Russian Federation” is directly linked to the legal regime governing the coordinate systems within which this structure existed. If its legal existence was confined to the local coordinate system SK-63, which contains no state territories or borders, then no acts of that trading company establishing baselines for measuring the breadth of territorial waters, the economic zone and the continental shelf can have legal force. It is on precisely this basis that the USSR Civil Defence Academy regards Resolution No. 914 of the so-called digital government of the Russian Federation of 18 June 2025 as an invalid and void document.
Resolution No. 914 of 18 June 2025 is entitled “On Approval of the List of Geographical Coordinates and Points Defining the Position of the Baselines…”. It concerns the determination of baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea off the mainland coast and islands is measured. However, as has been established, this resolution remained unsigned by the digital prime minister of the former trading company known as the Russian Federation. An unsigned act produces no legal effects, does not enter into force and cannot serve as a basis for any territorial claims. In legal terms, its existence is meaningless: it creates neither borders, nor territorial waters, nor an economic zone.
Comparing this document with Resolution No. 56/22 of the USSR Council of Ministers of 15 January 1985 is of fundamental importance. This Soviet act approved a list of coordinates and points defining the position of baselines for measuring the breadth of the Soviet Union’s territorial waters, economic zone and continental shelf, including off the mainland coast and islands of the Arctic Ocean and the Baltic and Black Seas. This is a legal basis currently in force, established by a sovereign state—the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The author compares the Russian list of baselines with the Soviet act and separately stresses the distinction between listing baselines and possessing sovereign state territory and borders.
The territorial seas, mainland coastal zones and islands are lawfully and sovereignly in the possession of the Soviet Union. This is the state of the victorious people, without any prefixes or dashes, where holders of an uninterrupted lifetime right, bearing the title of sovereign citizen of the USSR, live on their own land. No trading company can lay claim to these areas, since it possesses no state sovereignty and has no lawful territory.
It follows that the former closed trading company known as the Russian Federation has neither a state border, nor lawful territory, nor territorial seas, nor mainland coastal zones, nor islands. All these areas belong sovereignly to the Soviet Union. Resolution No. 914, which remained unsigned, merely confirms this absence: the digital government was unable to give its lists of coordinates legal force because it is not itself a lawful body. Its acts produce no legal effects and cannot rival Soviet Resolution No. 56/22, which remains in force as an act of a sovereign state.
It is telling that Decree No. 521 of 27 July 2026, “On Amendments to the List of Border Territories”, restricts land ownership by foreign citizens, stateless persons and foreign legal entities in the listed border territories; the author includes USSR citizens in the foreign-citizen category. Yet border territories cannot exist in principle, since the closed trading company known as the Russian Federation has no state border. The list of border territories approved by Decree No. 26 of 9 January 2011 is not included in the all-Union SAAT classification system, while the Russian AKATO and OKTMO classification systems were abolished by the international regulator with effect from 2019. Consequently, Decree No. 521 itself also lacks a legal basis.
Thus, the absence of state borders and territorial waters belonging to the former trading company known as the Russian Federation is confirmed by the documents taken together: the unsigned Resolution No. 914, Soviet Resolution No. 56/22 currently in force, and the SAAT, AKATO and OKTMO classification systems. The territorial seas, mainland coastal zones and islands belong sovereignly to the Soviet Union. This means that the former trading company has no lawful territory, and that its cadastres and registers were maintained within a local coordinate system containing no citizens or state territories.
Decree No. 521 of 27 July 2026: Restrictions on Land Ownership in Border Territories
Decree No. 521 of 27 July 2026, “On Amendments to the List of Border Territories,” is discussed in connection with the list approved by Decree No. 26 of 9 January 2011. It concerns territories where foreign citizens, stateless persons and foreign legal entities may not own plots of land. The Academy stresses that this system treats USSR citizens as foreigners and connects the restriction with their property rights. At the same time, the author challenges the legal basis of the Russian list itself on the grounds of the lecture’s assessment of RF borders and territory.
However, border territories cannot exist for the simple reason that the closed trading company known as the Russian Federation has no state border. The list of border territories introduced by Decree No. 26 of 9 January 2011 and amended by Decree No. 521 of 27 July 2026 is not included as such in the all-Union classification system entitled “System for Designating Units of Administrative and Territorial Division of the Soviet Union and the Union Republics, as well as Populated Localities” (SAAT). In the Academy’s assessment, the decree relies on a Russian list that is not represented in the Soviet classification system in that capacity.
This conclusion rests on all the facts established above, taken together. Resolution No. 1240 of the Government of the Russian Federation of 24 November 2016 confirmed that the unified geodetic coordinate system SK-42 was used until 1 January 2021, while SK-63 was a local coordinate system (MSK) in which only entities existed—without citizens, finances, state territories or borders. Resolution No. 378-85 of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the USSR Council of Ministers of 25 March 1987 abolished SK-63 and prohibited the opening of cadastres and registers, permitting materials created within it to be used only for commercial activities beyond the limits of the land and without creating new data. The procedure for dividing territory into cadastral units and assigning cadastral numbers was abolished with effect from 1 January 2017, and Rosreestr’s cadastral and registration activities ceased with effect from 1 January 2020. Order No. 643 of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation of 14 September 2023 repealed Orders No. 877 of 24 November 2015 and No. 634 of 16 November 2018 on the grounds that they contained no rules of law; Resolution No. 1012 of the Government of the Russian Federation of 7 October 2016 repealed a number of acts. The Russian AKATO and OKTMO classification systems were abolished in favour of the USSR’s classification systems with effect from 1 January 2019. Finally, Resolution No. 914 of the digital government of the Russian Federation of 18 June 2025 remained unsigned and is invalid and void, whereas Resolution No. 56/22 of the USSR Council of Ministers of 15 January 1985 approved a list of coordinates for measuring the breadth of the Soviet Union’s territorial waters, economic zone and continental shelf.
Thus, the former closed trading company known as the Russian Federation has no lawful territory, no state border, no territorial seas, mainland coastal zones or islands. All these areas lawfully and sovereignly belong to the Soviet Union—the state of the victorious people, an international subject of legal relations, where holders of an uninterrupted lifetime right, bearing the title of sovereign citizen of the USSR, live on their own land. Decree No. 521 of 27 July 2026, which restricts land ownership by foreign citizens in the listed border territories and, in the Academy’s assessment, affects USSR citizens, cannot have force because it was issued in respect of territory that the closed trading company known as the Russian Federation does not possess, and uses a list of border territories that is not included in the all-Union SAAT classification system.
The final conclusion is as follows. The Russian Federation, as a former closed trading company, has no lawful territory. Its cadastres and registers were maintained within the local coordinate system SK-63, which contained no citizens, finances, state territories or borders. The abolition of SK-63 in 1987 prohibited the opening of cadastres and registers. The AKATO and OKTMO classification systems were abolished in favour of the USSR’s classification systems with effect from 1 January 2019. Rosreestr’s cadastral and registration activities ceased with effect from 1 January 2020. Resolution No. 914 of 18 June 2025 is void, while Resolution No. 56/22 of the USSR Council of Ministers of 15 January 1985 remains in force. Decree No. 521 of 27 July 2026 lacks a basis, since there is no state border and the list of border territories is not included in the SAAT classification system. Taken together, all this confirms the loss of statehood by the former trading company known as the Russian Federation and the restoration of the Soviet Union’s sovereign rights over its territory, its citizens and its borders.
More articles based on lectures by the USSR Civil Defence Academy: https://tass.news/category/ussr/ussr-civil-defense-academy/
