Mikhail Moskvin-Tarkhanov, one of the Moscow legislators who initiated a revision of the city’s Master Plan, said in his interview for the Russkiy Mir portal how the municipal authorities plan to create an open-city economy and to eliminate such categories and the rentier class, illegal immigrants and the unemployed.
– Why are you now reviewing Moscow’s Master Plan approved in 2010?
– The development strategy changed with the coming of new administration but there was no legislative basis for this change. In the former Master Plan Moscow was viewed as some fortress isolated both from the rest of Russia and from the Moscow region while new mayor has targeted integrated development of Moscow and the greater Moscow area. The situation has changed so radically that now a unified agglomeration is being formed and so a different development strategy is needed.
– How much different is it from the Master Plan that divided Moscow into development zones (downtown) and stabilization zones (industrial zones and bedroom districts) for the sake of housing construction and the creation of more jobs?
– It’s totally different. The adopted Master Plan heavily rests on the labor of migrants. A short time ago Mayor’s Office studied the structure of employment in Moscow. The results were shocking: out of Moscow’s 12 million residents only 6.5 million seem to work, whereas 5.5 million are retired folks, housewives, people with disabilities and schoolchildren. Out of the 6.5 million would-be employees only 4 million actually work. Only every third Muscovite or 35% is employed. Another 1.5 million jobs are reserved for the Moscow region plus 1 million more for the rest of Russia and CIS. And this is talking solely about legal jobs in industry, trade and transport. We create jobs for migrant workers – 10 new jobs for migrants versus 1 job for Muscovites. We inflate the non-resident staff in the capital, used very inefficiently and up to 45% of it illegally. The result is costly land and real estate, resource shortages, environmental and transport strain. This is all included in the prices of end products that keep growing. Thus we conserve high prices and inefficiency.
– How will the urban space be modified given the unwillingness of Muscovites to work in the occupational sector?
– In order to see how the urban space is to be modified, we should understand who lives here and what’s the occupation of these people? Roughly speaking, what economy prevails in the city? And it is the economy of services or post-industrial economy that calls the shots. For now Moscow is the only city in Russia that is heading for post-industrial horizons. Saint Petersburg may catch up with it with time and Sochi has fair chances as well. Other cities belong to the industrial age. This means that Muscovites create a new, relatively solvent sphere of services that makes up the middle class groaning in overheated urban economy.
– Then what are the employment opportunities for the people of Moscow with its burden of 2.5 million latent unemployed?
– There are three types of post-industrial economy based on the service sector. The classical sphere of services is hotels, restaurants, tourism and medical service where many Muscovites are already involved. The second type of services is finance. Moscow is the only large financial center in CIS as nothing of the kind can be found in Astana, Kiev or Saint Petersburg. Half of national finances are concentrated in the capital city. Russian President has already directed the creation of a new financial center in Moscow. This is the main designation of the Moscow City structures currently under construction in Moscow. A new and powerful financial structure is being consistently created in the capital.
– Russia continues to suck up the resources of the rest of Russia, but now according to the postindustrial model, does it not?
– Why? Moscow will be the second Frankfurt, the second New York – the largest financial and business center of Eastern Europe – and maybe even the world’s second northeastern regional bank. Rather than parasitizing on Russia, the new capital will be Russia’s supplier. And when we start redirecting loans and investments at our own discretion, settling accounts in rubles, RMB and EURO, cut deals in new Moscow the latter will require fundamentally new labor and more intellectual human resources. There will be a huge amount of jobs for educated Muscovites and skilled expats. Finally one more sector is science, R&D and engineering effort in the high-tech realm. More than half of Russian scientific personnel is now concentrated in Moscow. Here are the three major sectors: classical service, finance and science. Let’s add here tertiary education and postgraduate education as well as science-intensive and experimental hi-tech production – this is the economics of the 21st century.
– One of the most criticized aspects of the Master Plan is the shortage of roads and a growing number of high-rises that leads to even worse traffic congestion. How will the transport urban space reviewed in this connection?
– We cannot change it in a flash. Calculations show that two thirds of solvent Muscovites already possess automobiles. In other words, we may expect 2 more million cars to be purchased by Muscovites in addition to the already existing 4 million. All the works aimed at the creation of garages, parking spaces and traffic reorganization lag behind the growing number of cars. Did you notice that in wintertime there are fewer automobiles on Moscow roads compared to summer? Drivers fear traffic jams. The traffic jam has long become the main traffic regulator in Moscow. So we’ll probably get rid of traffic jams after we radically alter the urban economy and social structure. One of the ways to regulate traffic in the future is to contain consumer activity. Unless we do this and keep improving the traffic logistics many families may reason, “why not buying another car?” We should do our best to discourage the vestiges of this obsolete thinking.
Today we are shaping the strategy of Moscow development as an open community, the city of middle class and postindustrial economy of services. This means we should develop our brain even if to the detriment of material interests or grabbing consumption reflexes. And all schoolchildren and students should learn English from their early years for this is a pass to the contemporary world.
– When will the open city strategy become part of the Master Plan?
– I cannot promise you instantaneous and dramatic review. If we start radically altering the Master Plan right now, having no clear strategy, or hasten with implementation of the city programs, we may easily end in anarchy and legal uncertainty. We can forget about private or foreign investments in this case. Therefore we’ll follow the existing Master Plan which is very well knit in general and enter step-by-step corrections in line with the new strategy once it is approved.
Anton Samarin
