MOSCOW — Russia is preparing amendments to the privatization law to increase the effectiveness of the privatization processes, Head of the Department for Privatization of Federal Property Ivan Aksyonov told a news conference Tuesday.

"The amendments envision the transition to mid-term planning," he said.

Aksyonov said the government plans to significantly simplify the mechanism of privatization for federal state unitary enterprises and minority state-owned blocs of shares amounting to less than 25%. These blocs of shares are non-liquid property and do not attract interest on the part of investors.

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About 500 blocks were put out for sale, but 310 of them were not blocking shares, or shares that aggregated more than 20%, he said.

According to the Federal Property Management Agency Rosimushchestvo, the majority of state unitary enterprises can be privatized without preliminary corporatization through the direct sale of their property at open auctions. Currently, 99% of state unitary enterprises are privatized through corporatization that normally takes about a year.