Russian Government Making Plans to Shift Headquarters of Large Corporations Out of Moscow

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Aug. 2 – A year ago at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, Vladimir Putin said that he wanted the headquarters of large corporations to be moved out of Moscow. As a first step, the Russian government is working on plans to more 170 corporate headquarters of state firms which employ at least 2,000 workers each in the 2030s, Vedomosti reports.

            With time, the government will press other corporations that have headquarters in Moscow to relocate, in the first instance to improve conditions in the regions so that they will be able to provide the necessary employees and living conditions to retain these institutions there (vedomosti.ru/economics/articles/2025/08/01/1128503-sredi-pretendentov-na-pereezd-iz-moskvi-v-spiske-kabmina-170-kompanii).

            If that doesn’t happen, Moscow officials working on these plans say, then the country eventually will be reduced to an overpopulated capital surrounded by an empty or nearly empty countryside, a situation that will threaten the survival of the Russian Federation in its current borders.

            The Kremlin has pressed companies to shift from Moscow to regional centers in the past and almost certainly will continue to do so in the future, but experts say that resistance to doing so will remain strong and therefore the latest campaign may fail once it moves beyond state companies (svpressa.ru/politic/article/475233/).