Maybe they could put some money into renovating the rundown piece of crap then trying to hide it under some fancy materialistic (albeit cool) skyscrapers.
What the hell are you talking about? Don't post while you are taking pain medication.
Toronto and New York are cities of the most developed and rich countries in the world. Russia is a third world country that would be wise to spend its money on solving its problems, instead of shiny towers for the rulling elite. But of course such course of action is understandable knowing Russian culture.
Of course, why spend money on investment projects for business and industry that will take away the dependence of oil while we could have a huge welfare state that self-destructs when oil prices fall! Only Poles could think of that!
"Or we could take the traditional, Western press style explanation. As the super-rich oligarchs spend $15 million of their stolen oil money on a bottle on special diamond-infused champagne, just down the road, Valentina, 56, has to eat her own head just to survive"
It doesn't take any talent or thought to put together some glass tower. Just mechanical work. There is no aesthetic vaulue here, it is just ugly, vulgar and hideous. Especially that DNA helix tower. You know, they want to have the city duma in it. And why on earth must the city duma sit inside a DNA helix??!!
The DNA helix is the Wedding Palace(Dvorec Brakosochetaniya). The Moscow city duma is the M-shaped building:
With red lighting.
Looter, Vanalasus:
Why has Moscow prospered so since it lost its empire. When it was the Soviet Capital it has twice as many people in its country plus the Warsaw Pact. The Soviet Union had all power centralized, yet now the centre is strong and the provinces suffer. Before the revolution Moscow was a provincial city whose largest buildings were Cathedrals, now it is the largest city in Europe and the most expensive city in the world?
If oil is the answer then first there is no oil near Moscow, second I live near to the oil sands yet not a single office tower has been built here since the destruction of the Soviet Union. Putin is God, Putin is the Savior.
Moscow had a good mayor(Luzhkov) from the start, who could manage the city well, through the difficult years of the 90's. He even posed a threat to Yeltsyn's power in 1994, who tried to remove him ever since. Moscow is really not that expensive a city, sure, more expensive than the regions, but it is only considered expensive for foreigners. A place where you can get a cup of tea or a meat bun in its center(Kitay-Gorod/Kremlin) for 20 cents is not expensive. However, if you go in the place next to it, which is dark inside with music playing...
Oh, and Moscow only constitutes for 15% of Russia's total GDP.
And here are some real stats on expenditures:
Moscow budget for 2006:
Accepted in november 2005
expenditures - 561,2млрд р. (~$20,5bln)
revenue - 504,6млрд р. (~$18,4bln)
reaccepted in July 2006
expenditures - 704,0млрд р. (~$25,7bln)
revenue - 614,4млрд р. (~$22,4bln)
Russia's total budget for next year is $251 billion(or something like that) with estimated GDP growth rate at 6.9%.
2007 will also be the year when business goes to the regions, as Moscow is overdeveloped, and total small business credits have quadrupled in volume since last year. Barnaul, Novosibirsk, Chelyabinsk, Yekaterinburg, and St. Petersburg to name a few are already building their own "city"'s like "Moscow City", though not as extravagant. Here's Ekaterinburg City for example:
My point is that while Moscow seems posh, the regions are rising, though not as quickly.
Basically:
Are there problems? Yes
Is it getting better? Yes
Is it getting worse? No
Are there problems in any other country of the world? Yes
On Russia in total:
Code: Select alldistribution of income(from gks.ru national bureau of statistics)
2002 2003 2004 2005
less than 1500.0 17.3 9.9 6.2 3.2
1500.1- 2500.0 23.0 17.5 13.2 8.9
2500.1-3500.0 18.1 16.7 14.4 11.5
3500.1-4500.0 12.6 13.4 12.8 11.5
4500.1-6000.0 11.8 14.3 15.0 15.0
6000.1-8000.0 8.2 11.4 13.4 14.9
8000.1-12000.0 6.1 10.2 13.7 17.3
over 12000.0 2.9 6.6 11.3 17.7 Code: Select allAverage monthly wage:
2005 2006
2Q 3Q 4Q 1Q 2Q
US dollars 283,8 291,0 302,3 333,7 357,5
Oh, and those buildings are built by and for private companies(except Moscow City Hall), not the Federal or City budget.
When you crush them, it's only powder. You can't crush us, we're made of steel.
))
- By Pants-of-dog
- By FiveofSwords