Sergei Sobyanin is running for mayoral election in Moscow

The Russian capital has entered the top three in the world in terms of the quality of school education, as well as in the top 10 largest cities in the world in terms of reducing the tension of the crime situation, recalls Sergei Sobyanin in the document “Moscow. Results and plans for the development of the city until 2030, which is essentially his election program for a new term in the mayor’s chair. The metro network has grown by more than one and a half times, and investments in the metropolis have almost reached 6 trillion rubles, continues Mr. Sobyanin, offering to continue investing in transport and social services. So, the citizens are promised a “completely updated healthcare framework” in Moscow, personalization of education and treatment, 70 new metro stations and the MCD, as well as an even more tangible reduction in the crime rate.

The election platform of Sergei Sobyanin is an 80-page document entitled “Moscow. Results and plans for the development of the city until 2030″ (.pdf). According to the tradition of the mayor’s annual speeches, it has been counting down since 2010, when Mr. Sobyanin first became the mayor of the capital. Since that time, more than 500 new schools and kindergartens, 125 clinics, 109 new metro stations (including the new Big Circle Line and the Moscow Central Circle) have appeared in Moscow, 1.2 thousand km of roads and 118 million square meters have been built. m of real estate, the document says. “The most important growth factor was the new industrialization of the city”: since 2010, the volume of industrial production has grown 1.8 times, investments “from all sources” have more than tripled (reaching 5.9 trillion rubles), and the volume of harmful emissions into the atmosphere, on the contrary, decreased by 2.6 times “thanks to the ecological modernization of industry and transport”. Separate mention is made of the housing renovation program (within its framework, 1 million people should receive apartments), the restoration of 2 thousand cultural heritage sites and digital services “to which Muscovites are accustomed” on the capital’s portal of public services (like an online appointment with a doctor) and in the Moscow electronic school (MESH).

Sergey Sobyanin also gives priorities for the development of Moscow until 2030 to the social sector.

Thus, the townspeople are promised a “completely renewed healthcare framework” (with large medical clinics and a new network of women’s health clinics), a transition to “personalized treatment” and, in general, “completion of the transition from medicine for treating diseases to medicine for maintaining health.” According to the plan, the measures should increase the life expectancy of citizens from 78 years to 81 years. The reality of the plans should be confirmed by the fait accompli scattered throughout the document, such as the open network of diagnostic pavilions “Healthy Moscow”, the increase in IVF volumes by five times, and the purchase by Moscow of “heavy” medical equipment under life cycle contracts for the first time in the history of domestic healthcare.

Moscow has already entered, reminds the mayor, into the top three cities in the world in terms of the quality of school teaching (in 2018 in the PISA study). The promises are “personalization of education” with the selection of individual programs (and “simultaneous provision of mass quality of education”), the reform of secondary vocational education “taking into account the needs of the city’s economy” and the further development of MES services.

Large-scale development plans are traditionally outlined in the transport industry. The metropolitan metro is already the most punctual in the world (with reference to a study by the CoMET metro association).

Having stated that since 2011 more than 4 million Muscovites have already got a subway station, MCC or MCD near their homes, Sergei Sobyanin proposes to build 70 more metro and MCD stations by 2030, lay 350 km of new roads and 200 km of dedicated lanes for public transport on the roads.

Thanks to the latter, the document emphasizes, 1.6 million citizens daily “get by taxi faster than by private car.” In general, the metropolitan transport “became freer” (since since 2010, almost 17 million passenger seats have been created in it, including 8.4 million in the metro), and “only modern electric trains go to the MCD”. “The last time the train fleet was updated on such a large scale was for the Olympics-80,” the document emphasizes. The plans also include the replacement of all buses with electric buses by 2030, three new metro lines and transport accessibility for 97% of Moscow residents of the subway, MCC or MCD.

Over the past decade, the crime rate has decreased by a third, and the number of murders by half, the mayor states, while Moscow has entered the top 10 largest cities in the world in terms of reducing the tension of the crime situation (Crime Index rating).

Sergei Sobyanin plans to further reduce the level of crime, develop modern technologies in this area (including video surveillance) and commission 12 fire stations.

It should be noted that in 2018, Sergei Sobyanin also went to the polls with an emphatically social program, proposing as the main idea a program to eliminate territorial discrimination in the metropolis – in the sense of creating a unified standard for the quality of life and the urban environment in 146 municipalities. At that time, the core of the platform was the My District comprehensive improvement program (it was proposed to combine it with the small business support program). At the same time, the authorities spent all these years on the improvement of about 35-40 billion rubles. In 2018, the program also set goals for the construction of four road chords (South-Eastern, North-Eastern, North-Western, Southern Rocade) – this work is planned to be completed this year, when the 68-kilometer Moscow High-Speed ​​Diameter should be fully opened for traffic (it included sections of the South-Eastern and North-Eastern chords).

The current program states that the last five-year period has become “the time of the most serious test of strength”, with the COVID-19 pandemic, “military actions” and unprecedented sanctions. At the same time, the document, of course, has a section on helping the army, mobilized citizens and their families. But in general, this is an emphatically peaceful program for the development of the metropolis.

Alexander Voronov