"Operation Mega-Moscow": Russian capital to expand

By Ulf Mauder Aug 4, 2011, 13:43 GMT

Moscow - Other megalopolises can only dream of the kind of growth that Moscow is capable of, according to Vladimir Resin, 75, the first deputy mayor of the Russian capital.

Resin, who oversees construction, is delighted that the city of more than 10 million will soon expand to almost two-and-a-half times its present area: by 1,460 square kilometres to 2,530 square kilometres.

The announcement that Moscow will annex a gigantic chunk of the surrounding region came without prior warning, angering many Muscovites, who once again see themselves presented with a fait accompli.

Less than a month after President Dmitry Medvedev demanded an increase in the size of the city, a general plan was submitted. Expert assessments? Civic participation? Public debate? No way.

Critics of the annexation fear compulsory expropriations, an end to the surrounding cities' self-government and all manner of other socially explosive consequences. Russian media have dubbed the project 'Operation Mega-Moscow.'

To concoct such a project in utter secrecy typifies the political style of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, an ex-KGB officer, wrote the Moscow-based magazine Kommersant Vlast.

It said the estimated 24-billion-euro (34-billion-dollar) cost of hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi was 'peanuts' compared with Moscow's planned expansion, the scale of which is unprecedented.

'The present area is simply too small for anything - for new roads, for businesses, for buildings,' Resin said in an interview with the Moscow tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda.

The city government, too, is to move out of the old city centre into the new Moscow. This part of the plan, at least, finds favour with most Muscovites.

Moscow residents have long taken umbrage at the frequent gridlocks caused by closing the city's huge highways to let government officials speed to their destinations, with flashing lights and wailing sirens, unimpeded by common folk.

Moscow's expansion will initially increase the number of its residents by just a quarter of a million. But experts expect that hundreds of thousands of outsiders will settle in the appended area, in order to become Muscovites.

It is not easy to obtain official residence in the capital, which has traditionally attracted many Russians with its abundance of jobs and higher pay.

The territory slated for annexation lies to the south-west of Moscow. On a map, it is shaped like a cone, and will make the new Mega-Moscow look like a figure-of-eight.

'In the future, what we now call Moscow will simply be the historic district, the tourist centre, a place of recreation,' Resin said.

It is unclear whether the Kremlin - the historic fortified complex at the heart of Moscow - will then be completely open to tourists.

Until now, only a few Kremlin churches, the armoury and a concert hall have been accessible to the public. Medvedev, whose official residence is within the Kremlin's imposing Czarist-era walls, has not yet commented on a possible relocation of the presidential home.

What can be said for certain, however, is that a number of new centres will be built in the annexed area. In the suburb of Skolkovo, for example, a science and technology park modelled on California's Silicon Valley is taking shape. A government district is also in the works.

Another reason for the expansion, according to Medvedev, is the much-needed creation of an international financial centre akin to Frankfurt or London.

A foretaste of Moscow's architectural future is the ultra-modern Moskva City business district, whose glass-fronted high-rises are located a few kilometres from the Kremlin.