Collapse of Communal Services in Moscow Region Greater than Elsewhere Because Infrastructure There hasn’t Kept Pace with Its Rapid Population Growth

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Jan. 9 – Many observers have been surprised that the collapse in communal services like heat and light appears to have been greater in areas near the Russian capital than in outlying areas, but Russian experts say there is a good reason for this perhaps unexpected pattern.

            While most of Russia has experienced population decline, something that has in fact reduced pressure on aging communal services, Moscow Oblast has seen its population surge in the last several decades. Developers have put up ever more housing; but neither they nor the government has invested to keep infrastructure in line with the number of new residents.

            As a result, the strain on infrastructure has been greater there than elsewhere, and the collapse of communal services at a time of extraordinary cold more widespread, a rare case where Muscovites or in this case near-Muscovites have suffered more than non-Muscovites (svpressa.ru/society/news/400936/ and nsn.fm/society/v-tpp-nazvali-moroz-triggerom-k-proryvu-trub-v-podmoskove).