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Keywords

Russia, Housing, Urban Renewal, Russian Politics, Housing Policy, Slavic Societies, European Housing History, European Economics, Moscow Urban Renewal Initiative, Ukraine, Khrushchevka

Abstract

The Moscow Urban Renewal Initiative (Инициатива обновления городов Москвы, 2017-) is the joint project of President Vladimir Putin (1999-2008, 2012-) and Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin (2010-) to remove dilapidated housing structures in Moscow. Since 2017, the programme has already displaced about 20,000 Muscovites, with plans to displace 1.5 million more by its completion goal of 2032. These displacements have revealed significant economic deficiencies in the post-Soviet market economy of the Russian Federation. Delays in the programme due to the COVID-19 pandemic have only escalated issues further – as has the War on Ukraine. Understanding the importance of the Moscow Urban Renewal Initiative requires a formed understanding of the financial development of the new Russian Federation. The regenerative goals of the Moscow Urban Renewal Initiative have forced a fundamental reconciliation of how all Russians experience housing and the market, well beyond the scope of the initial privatization sweep of 1991. By piecing together the history of the initial privatization of 1991, both major wars, and the three financial crises thereafter this essay ties the goals of initial privatization with those of the Moscow Urban Renewal Initiative, this essay creates a narrative between these events and Russian economic life while opening a debate regarding the Initiative’s future.

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