москва: Russia's Economic Powerhouse

Mayor Sobyanin visits President Putin for a chat.

Most of Moscow

The new Moscow skyline emphasizing its skyscrapers.

One postcard photo

And another. Online image albums are filled with thousands of pics many of them equally spectacular making it very hard to choose just a few representatives. To properly visit this imperial city would take two weeks at minimum yet much would still be missed. Sergey Sobyanin has served as Moscow Mayor since 2010 and along with his team has turned the city into a gem. Many alt-media personalities that have visited Moscow over the past year proclaim it to be superior to New York in many ways. As you’ll read in the chat that follows, Moscow remains Russia’s economic engine despite efforts by the federal government to spread its economic dynamics further throughout Russia—it’s actually done a good job of that, but Moscow continues to replace the growth that’s exported with new entities and keeps itself booming; and the reason for that is excellent planning by all three governing entities—Moscow Region, City of Moscow, and the Federal government. And now for the chat between two longstanding friends and political allies:

Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon!

Sergey Semyonovich, Moscow traditionally shows very good indicators in almost all areas, including investment. How do you rate it?

Sobyanin: Mr President, despite all the objective difficulties–-and we always have objective difficulties--even in the current difficult situation, we may sometimes lack them to demonstrate such good results.

Over the past year, the economy has grown by 5.5 percent, and in general, in six years, during the pandemic, sanctions, and so on, the economy of Moscow has grown by a quarter. This is a good dynamic.

Vladimir Putin: Good dynamics, plus 25 percent.

Sergei Sobyanin: And every year we are going to make a profit.

The dynamics of investments is also quite good: it has doubled in comparable prices over the past six years. In almost all industries.

Vladimir Putin: Moscow's share in the country's economy is also significant: over 21 percent.

Sergei Sobyanin: 21 percent is not even counting the financial sector. We are still the financial center of the country, and when GRP [Gross Regional Product] is counted, the financial sector is not counted, and we have about 600 thousand people working there, a significant sector of the economy. But even so, the share is quite large.

Which, of course, cannot fail to please–-we have already talked about this, and you were at our enterprises–-manufacturing and industrial production is growing. In recent years, we have seen a modern, new industrialization of Moscow. You remember these processes when the factories moved away from us to other regions. Today we see the opposite process, because today high-tech production requires appropriate personnel.

Therefore, the reverse process is underway. Even if we look at the turnover of high-tech industries, which generally accounts for about a third of the country's industry, the growth has also tripled. These include electronics, computer manufacturing, sophisticated technologies, and so on.

The last year was generally explosive for us, because the accumulated effect of investments, introduced a number of high-tech industries, which began to replace imported equipment supplies. You can see, 100 percent, what a jump there was last year. This, of course, is impressive.

Vladimir Putin: 221.5 percent.

Sergei Sobyanin: Yes.

Thanks to all the efforts of the Government of the Russian Federation, the tasks you set, and the situation we are in: at the time of COVID, the first jump was (this is the IT sector), and today it is almost spasmodic, in arithmetic progression. We have increased it fourfold in recent years. You can see how the growth is progressing. [Referring to charts.]

The first jump occurred when COVID started in our country, because information systems were actively in demand. But even now, the growth is even stronger, and the base there is already so decent, and the growth continues. Because there is a massive substitution of imported software.

Vladimir Putin: In 2023-222 percent, and in 2024-316.5 percent.

Sergey Sobyanin: Four times the height.

Vladimir Vladimirovich, what else can I bring you to? Not all cities move so fast. You once set a goal to make Moscow one of the top five cities in the world in terms of economy and purchasing power parity. We were in fifth place in 2020 and reached the second place in the world in 2023. And nearby cities are very serious. Of course, I think it will be difficult to keep this place, given the fact that China is developing, its cities.

Vladimir Putin: The dynamics are great.

Sergey Sobyanin: We are also not standing still. Taking into account the groundwork: investments, human resources, the return of industry, high-tech, I think we will still be able to maintain this position. At least, we hope that we will be in the top three cities.

Vladimir Putin: Good potential.

Sergei Sobyanin: Apart from the economy, Mr President, social security and social infrastructure are of course important for citizens. In accordance with the national education development project, we decided to invest in the construction and modernization of schools. The program was created. And we have set a task to reconstruct all the schools in Moscow that require it. We used to build 40-50 schools each. Now, in addition to the fact that we will build 60 educational buildings, we will also reconstruct hundreds of schools. This is a big, global, and serious task. I am sure that we will succeed. In a few years, we plan to have all schools in Moscow up-to-date.

You were in one of the colleges, centers. We continue to implement this task. Last year, college admissions were already over 100,000, including city, federal, and private colleges. Nevertheless, this figure is already serious. We started with 60, now 100, and we plan to reach 150 in the future. Students study well and enjoy it, because colleges are becoming modern and in demand. 95 percent of children after college get a job in a profession, and the salaries are not bad.

An even more ambitious health program. We are finishing the program of reconstruction of polyclinics. We had 350 clinics in a dilapidated state. Now there are very few of them left in 2024, and this year we will finish this program. All our clinics will be reconstructed or built anew. And this is a serious modernization.

The same thing happens in hospitals. Of course, the situation there is more complicated: we have to build about 1 million square meters of new hospitals and reconstruct about the same amount. We also started this program. Today the situation is quite good, there are not so many buildings left, 30 buildings. I think that we will complete this program within three or four years.

New polyclinics look no worse than private ones, with an interior design, appropriate branding, new, modern medical buildings, also at the world level.

Vladimir Putin: We've been to some of them.

Sergei Sobyanin: Yes, we were in the Morozov hospital, and after that we introduced a whole new series.

Remember, you were at our X-ray and MRI data processing center and set a task for us to extend the services that we developed in Moscow with artificial intelligence for image processing to other regions. In fact, we have completed this task, connected 70 regions, and now we process three times as many images from the regions per month as we process our own images.

Vladimir Putin: Because this is also a very convenient service for the regions.

Sergei Sobyanin: Yes, absolutely. And you don't need to create it in every region, because the more data artificial intelligence processes, the better it works. Therefore, most likely, centralization is needed here. Together with the Ministry of Health, we have signed a corresponding agreement and are starting to work. Very good story.

And as a result, the development of the economy, health care, and a healthy lifestyle. We have come close to 80 years of life expectancy last year–-79.5.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, this is the result of 2024, in my opinion.

Sergei Sobyanin: Yes, this is the result of 2024—already somewhere on the verge of 80 years, such a good European result, the world result as a whole, taking into account the fact that our climate is completely different in any case.

Vladimir Putin: Yes.

Sergei Sobyanin: And on your instructions--I can't help but report–-we are continuing the program of infrastructure support, development and reconstruction with our twin cities of Donetsk and Luhansk. More than two thousand objects were reconstructed, more than a thousand kilometers of utility networks and millions of square meters of roads were restored.

We are also continuing an active program for this year. If in previous years we were mainly engaged in engineering infrastructure, now we have already begun to move on to improving public spaces: parks, roads, streets, and so on. This is not just engineering infrastructure, infrastructure for living, for public spaces.

Vladimir Putin: It is very important that people feel that positive changes are taking place in their current life.

Sergei Sobyanin: When you are inside, it is somehow invisible, but when you go out into courtyards, parks, squares, it is, of course, very noticeable and gives a positive result.

Vladimir Putin: These are all opportunities that arise as a result of economic development. And the fact that Moscow ranked second among major megacities in terms of purchasing power parity after New York, and the difference is not very large, is, of course, the basis for solving social issues, including schools, clinics, hospitals, hospitals, and so on. This is very cool. Good.

Sergei Sobyanin: Thank you for your support, Mr President. [My Emphasis]

Reports I read from New York City are very troubling—massive vacancy rate in office buildings; subway is now a vast homeless shelter with associated crime and health issues; it’s still not advised to walk in Central Park after dark; crime and filth are both very high in all districts; and the city is on the edge of bankruptcy again. What makes NYC #1 is the vast amount of parasitical wealth within the financial district and those it employs. What’s being improved in Moscow is becoming dilapidated in NYC. In its short note on this chat, TASS reported Russia’s economy in the first quarter grew 2% most likely led by Moscow’s excellent performance. Median salary in Moscow is 1,369,700 rubles. The current ruble/dollar exchange rate is just under 82 whereas on Jan first it was roughly 102, which is when I said buy rubles. Thus, the 1,369,700 rubles is about $16,700. Here’s one of the many sites providing cost of living info.

Given the continuing high rate of investment into Moscow along with its construction program, Moscow will likely continue to boom in-line with Mayor Sobyanin’s expectations. And that will provide the means to continue Moscow’s efforts to help the new regions upgrade their infrastructure and expand their economic horizons. And of course, people will continue to be attracted to the Moscow region despite the government’s plans to promote growth in Russia’s other regions.

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