Tag Mayor Sobyanin

Too good for this life

Sobyanin seems to be consistent in his plan to make Moscow's residential districts as humanly unlivable as possible. He hates trees and low-rise buildings but adores barren skyscraper blocks based on the ugliest Chinese models.

The crisis in Moscow: the second rally

Yesterday’s street protests in Moscow were large-scale, spectacular and non-violent on the protesters’ part, yet the police response was at times brutal. It’s remarkable (as I’ve said before) that protesters rallying in Moscow – whether with or without permission from…

Tiles and granite: Moscow’s “redevelopment”

The frenzied, absurd, profligate “urban redevelopment” underway in Moscow under Mayor Sergei Sobyanin fills me with a low-grade, drone-like dread of what’s to come. Throwing money to the wind seldom if ever resolves itself into respectable austerity: abject misery is the default…