Even for Housing without Indoor Plumbing, Residents of Regions Outside of Moscow Must Save for Years, ‘Horizontal Russia’ Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 1 – That people in the Russian Federation beyond Moscow’s ring road are more likely to be poor than residents of the capital is common knowledge; but just how great their suffering is as a result and how long they must wait to purchase housing is all too often ignored, according to the Horizontal Russia portal.

            The portal, which focuses on developments outside Moscow, found that in some places, families with two children and an average income for their federal subjects must save for decades and in one case more than 90 years to be able to get into substandard housing often without indoor plumbing (semnasem.org/articles/2026/06/01/do-90-let).

            The situation in the North Caucasian republic of Karachayevo-Cherkessia is the worst of those regions and republics Horizontal Russia examined. There, such families may have to wait as long as 91.5 years. In many places, the wait is only a few years; but in other non-Russian republics, it may be as long as 20 years.

            This is a measure of poverty that is rarely taken, but it is a sign of just how dire the situation is for many in the Russian Federation whose government is quite willing to spend billions of rubles on Putin’s war in Ukraine – and one that suggests that in some places at least, the potential for a social explosion is very real indeed.