It’s a jungle out there
(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Kristen Blyth – January 14, 2013) When asked how she became qualified to work as a real estate agent, Emma became defensive. “I don’t want to tell you,” she told The...
View ArticleFor $50 Million You Too Can Enter Putin Moscow Playhouse
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Stepan Kravchenko, Evgenia Pismennaya & Irina Reznik – July 10, 2013) Josef Stalin built a massive luxury apartment compound across the river from the Kremlin to both...
View ArticleExpectations High for New Moscow One Year On
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Irina Filatova – July 16, 2013) [The Development of New Moscow One Year On chart here:...
View ArticleSobyanin Daughter’s Apartment Triggers Controversy
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Irina Filatova – August 13, 2013) A seven-story apartment complex on a quiet Moscow street just a five minute walk from the Cabinet building is widely known as the...
View ArticleRussia’s Wealthiest Selling Apartments in Moscow and Fleeing Country,...
(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, August 14, 2013) Many in the Russian Federation and the West were shocked when European countries recently published figures showing that thousands of...
View Article40% of Property Ownership a Mystery to Government
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 10, 2013) The ownership of about 40 percent of all real estate properties in Russia is a complete mystery to the government, the Federal Tax Service said,...
View ArticleRussia Preparing Property Restrictions for Foreigners – Paper
(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, October 16, 2013) Russia is drafting changes to the law that will bar foreigners from owning or renting real estate in the country without official permission, a state-owned...
View ArticleIntroduction of Property Tax Postponed Until 2015
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 21, 2013) The introduction of the widely discussed new real estate tax that is set to replace the old system of levying fees on property with a...
View ArticleRIA Novosti: Russia Publishes Draft Law Restricting Foreign Land Ownership –...
MOSCOW, November 20 (RIA Novosti) Russia has published a draft law that will bar foreigners from owning or renting land in the country without official permission, a Russian newspaper reported...
View ArticleHousing Still the ‘Dream’ and Frequently Out of Reach
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – December 16, 2013) Affordable housing remains a dream for most Russian families, whose average monthly income is not enough for a mortgage to buy even a half of a...
View ArticleDacha Sales Down But Not Out
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – January 21, 2014) Real estate specialists say its necessary to head 60 kilometers beyond the MKAD to find quality low cost dachas. If you are dreaming of your own...
View ArticleRussians Paying Up to Turn Rubles Into Homes: Mortgages
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Lyubov Pronina – June 4, 2014) Denis Ichetkin’s decision to get a mortgage for a one-bedroom apartment on the outskirts of Moscow in late January couldn’t have been better...
View ArticleMoscow Renews Demolition Crusade Against Khrushchev’s 1950s Apartment Blocks
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Mark Lammey – June 10, 2014) Demolition men have flattened 1,451 of Moscow’s Khrushchevki – cheaply built 1950’s apartment blocks that were never meant to make it...
View ArticleRussians With Houses on State Land Get Right to Buy Plots at Discount
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – March 31, 2015) Russians with homes and cottages located on state-owned land now have the exclusive right to buy that land – and at a reduced rate, according to an...
View ArticleEtalon still building as world huffs, puffs, tries to blow Russia’s house down
(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris – June 24, 2015) The world may be huffing and puffing and trying to blow Russia’s house down. But the house made of brick is proving to be a match for sanctions...
View ArticleEconomic Crisis Empties Moscow Central Streets
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anastasia Bazenkova – August 25, 2015) Even though Moscow retail property owners are increasingly willing to offer favorable lease terms to clients, Moscow’s...
View ArticleMoscow’s Overnight Demolition Blitz Sparks Legal Debate
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Daria Litvinova, Vasily Kolotilov – February 11, 2016) You could hear a young woman yelling, but her voice was diluted in the sound of bulldozers, smashed glass and...
View ArticleMoscow’s authoritarian future
Recent moves against Moscow’s street traders don’t only violate Russia’s Constitution and hurt the economy. They also consolidate the regime’s power. (opendemocracy.net – Anastasiya Ovsyannikova –...
View ArticleDeconstructing Moscow’s Constructivist Legacy
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ola Cichowlas – June 9, 2016) [Photos here http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/deconstructing-moscows-constructivist-legacy/571579.html] When Moscow city...
View ArticleFive Rules for Living Through and Looking Beyond the Putin Stagnation
(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, June 20, 2016) Those who lived through the Brezhnev stagnation, commentator Dmitry Gubin says, know that “when the chances for change for the better don’t...
View ArticleTRANSCRIPT: [Vladimir Putin, Mikhail Men, Alexander Novak, Nikolai Nikiforov,...
(kremlin.ru – February 1, 2017) Vladimir Putin met with Government members to discuss possibilities for further developing treasury monitoring of budget spending, the situation with co-funded housing...
View ArticlePutin Orders Demolition of Moscow’s Iconic Post-War Apartment Blocks
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Katie Davies – February 21, 2017) Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the complete demolition of Moscow’s post-war Khrushchevkas: Soviet housing blocks...
View ArticleTRANSCRIPT: [Putin] Meeting with CEO of Sberbank German Gref
(Kremlin.ru – February 23, 2017) Sberbank CEO and Chairman of the Board German Gref briefed Vladimir Putin on the bank’s 2016 performance results and its current activities, including the prospects for...
View ArticleThousands Protest In Moscow Against Plan To Raze Soviet-Era Housing
(RFE/RL – Tom Balmforth – May 14, 2017 – ©2017 RFE/RL, Inc. Article also appeared at rferl.org/a/russia-moscow-protests-demolition-krushchev-era-housing/28487244.html) MOSCOW — Thousands of people have...
View ArticleMuscovites Hesitant to Protest Housing Demolition Scheme, Poll Finds
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – July 24, 2017) Only one-third of Muscovites who voted against a controversial housing demolition program would participate in protests against the scheme, according...
View ArticleMoscow’s Facelift as Modernization
(Kennan Institute – wilsoncenter.org/program/kennan-institute – MAXIM TRUDOLYUBOV – July 27, 2017) Maxim Trudolyubov, Senior Fellow with the Kennan Institute and editor-at-large with Vedomosti, has...
View ArticleMoscow’s Makeover Swaps Soviet Grit for Urban Sparkle; Smart city apps,...
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Valerie Stivers – August 10, 2017) [Text with photos bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-08-10/moscow-s-makeover-swaps-soviet-grit-for-urban-sparkle] Moscow felt medieval when...
View ArticleRUSSIALINK: “Waking the Russian Spirit of Urbanism; Urban renewal could...
“… They’ve looked around and realized that Russian cities are not nearly as beautiful as they could be, and in addition to amusement park rides and shish kebab stands, they can build skate parks and...
View ArticleRUSSIALINK: “Almost half of Ukrainians against land, pension reforms,...
KYIV. July 10 (Interfax) – Almost every second (49%) Ukrainian respondent is opposed to the land reform, or rather the cancellation of the existing moratorium on the sales of rural land, and does not...
View ArticleRUSSIALINK TRANSCRIPT: “[Putin at] Moscow Urban Forum Megacity of the Future:...
(Kremlin.ru – July 18, 2018 – en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/58026) Vladimir Putin spoke at the 8th Moscow Urban Forum Megacity of the Future: New Space for Living, held in Moscow’s...
View ArticleJRL NEWSWATCH: “Stalin’s Soaring Moscow Towers Sorely Need Body Work”– New...
“… Most of [Moscow’s] so-called ‘Stalin high-rises’ – both residential and government buildings – desperately need renovating. … stuck in limbo … over who will foot the substantial bill. Since the...
View ArticleRUSSIALINK: “Russia Disbands the Concept of ‘Dacha'”– Moscow Times
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jan. 3, 2019) The New Year has ushered in a slew of new laws in Russia, including one that disappears the very concept of country cottages, known as dachas, where...
View ArticleJRL NEWSWATCH: “The evictors For the past five years, loan sharks have forced...
“In Moscow and [environs] … ‘black creditors’ – microfinance institutions (MFOs) … deceive [debtors] and seize … homes. Meduza … [found ] almost 500 apartments lost … over the past five years without...
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