Russia’s Smaller Cities Can Be Saved Only if Businesses Reopen and Government Invests in Infrastructure, ‘PolitSovyet’ Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Aug. 13 – Russia’s smaller cities have been dying since the end of Soviet times, largely because they were built around large factories that the central government opened and no longer was willing or able to support, the PolitSoviet portal says; but now there is a chance they could be saved but only if business and government work together

In the first two decades of the 21^st century, there was much talk about saving what Russians call monogorods or company towns, and Moscow spent money in some of them, especially in the wake of protests, to save a few of the more than 300 such place, the Yekaterinburg portal continues (politsovet.ru/81661-bolshoy-shans-dlya-malyh-gorodov.html).

Now because Russia is being forced to re-industrialize as a result of sanctions, there is a chance that more of these places can be saved from decay and disappearance. But opening businesses as part of a import substitution effort is only a small part of what the country must do if that is to happen, the portal says,

On the one hand, Politsovyet argues, Russia must make a commitment to opening or reopening factories in smaller cities rather than having them arise in the metropolises as has been the case so far. And on the other, it says that this will happen and the cities will be saved only if Moscow makes a major commitment to rebuilding infrastructure in such places.

If that doesn’t happen, population flight from them will not only continue but accelerate; and any businesses that do reopen in such cities will likely die because they will not be able to attract workers who care about more than just a job but want the amenities of modern life as well.