For First Time in Fifty Years, Migration Flows have Now Shifted Away from Russia’s Major Cities toward Smaller Ones, Moscow Experts Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Mar. 26 – Russian geographers and economists speaking at a Moscow conference this week say that for the first time in almost half a century, migration flows have shifted away from major cities toward smaller ones, with more residents leaving the megalopolises and fewer from elsewhere moving into them.

            This process, Russian experts say, began during the covid pandemic when people not only worked at home but chose to move to their dachas outside of the major cities to avoid the danger of infection; but this trend is being exacerbated by drone attacks on high-rise apartment buildings in the largest cities.

            As reported by Anastasia Bashkatova, an economics expert at Nezavisimaya Gazeta,  ever more Russians see living in high rise apartments posing greater risks to themselves than living in single-family housing. There is more of the latter in smaller cities and so Russian urbanites are moving there (ng.ru/economics/2026-03-26/4_9462_concept.html).

            The largest beneficiaries of these concerns, real estate experts say, are not mid-sized cities far from Moscow or St. Petersburg but satellite cities located closer to the existing megalopolises. If the war in Ukraine continues this trend will likely continue as well, changing the economics of home ownership and reducing the still strong pull of the largest urban center.

            And that in turn means that Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia’s largest cities are going to have yet another set of consequences for Russia, including casting doubt on the growth of large cities at the expense of smaller ones, given that ever more Russians apparently aren’t prepared to take the risk of living in such high-density places anymore.