Indeed, Moscow prices are stunning, especially downtown, in expensive boutiques and brand name shops. Foreigners (including the rating agencies' employees) find it the hardest of all. This may be why the number of foreign tourists coming to Moscow went down by 10% in 2005 as compared with 2004. A tourist from Western Europe or the United States will have to pay a great deal for a visa and hotel. Foreigners officially pay more even for a ticket to the Kremlin than Russians do. Five Euros for a cup of coffee in central Moscow hotels compel businessmen to bring kettles if they travel regularly to Moscow.
But Moscow's notoriously high cost of living is just one element in the endless urban mosaic. In reality, Moscow (and the majority of global megalopolises) should be called a city of tough price discrimination. It has nothing to do with race, religion, or sex, but is based on the size of the wallet, taste, knowledge, and world outlook.
The world's biggest trade empires tried to gain a foothold in downtown Moscow, but realized pretty fast that they would not achieve much there. Downtown Moscow is very expensive (and not highly populated) for a full-scale trade expansion. They went to the Moscow outskirts, built enormous malls, dropped prices to a reasonable level, and are now skimming the cream off Moscow trade.
Official statistics maintains that Russian prices grow by 10%-12% a year. But in Moscow one and the same commodity can cost several times more in some places than in others. It all depends where you buy them, where you prefer to live, work, and spend your free time. Eventually, everything depends on what you are. Be yourself, and Moscow will suit you.
Gone are the times when one could get a more or less accurate idea about an average Muscovite. There are too many Muscovites. With a permanent population of 10 to 11 million, Moscow is one of the world's 30 biggest cities. On working days, when residents of satellite towns travel to Moscow, its population goes up to 14 million. Every year, immigration alone increases the number of Muscovites by 50,000. Immigrants come not only from Russia, but also from the Caucasus, the CIS, and post-Soviet Eastern Europe. These are only the official figures.
Fast expansion has created a host of problems. The most complicated problem is probably what today's Moscow represents. Like the rest of Russia, it has been trying to find a new image in the last few years, but has not yet achieved much. Not long before the City Day celebration, the Moscow Government spent about 700 million rubles (about $26 million) on promoting the city image, but Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov decided to postpone the final decision on what it was going to be. Moscow is very diverse, and it is difficult to define it once and for all. This September, the Russian capital will again celebrate the City Day. This time the festivities will pass under the slogan "Moscow is a city of music and light." Although the organizers of the festival have done everything for the participants and guests to get this impression, Moscow is by no means limited to music and light.
It has long been noticed that Moscow is not simply a city but a whole state. Trying to be original, an unknown author of the Internet's Wikipedia claims that this state borders on Russia on all sides. Probably, this was the case some 10 or 20 years ago, when the main human and material resources were flowing to Moscow and feeding its rapid growth. But today's Moscow borders are much bigger than they used to be.
It is difficult to draw them even approximately. In summer Moscow borders directly on Turkey, Spain, and the Mediterranean, where Muscovites spend their vacations, go shopping, and get a bronze tan. Closer to winter, its borders extend to Egypt, Western Europe, and South East Asian islands. All year round, it borders on new states in the Caucasus, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, China, and Vietnam, from where it daily receives flows of people and goods. Needless to say, Moscow borders on all major transnational corporations and leading NGOs, which, strictly speaking, do not have any borders. Moscow does not want to have them, either.
In reality, Moscow borders on the Moscow Region. But this delimitation is becoming increasingly vague because of Moscow's onslaught. There already exist several projects that suggest uniting the capital and the region into a single super region.
A real revolution in the urban way of life took place when Moscow acquired its suburbs. Muscovites are quite well off even by European standards. In addition to an apartment in Moscow, almost every family has a dacha (summerhouse), a village house, or at least a foundation for future construction outside of Moscow. If the owners are not marking time, it will quickly turn into a modern cottage.
Moscow's infamous traffic jams originate in the suburbs. Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who visited Moscow a couple of years ago and who was late for all scheduled appointments, complained that she had not seen such traffic jams even in New York. Sometimes it seems that the local authorities, which continuously invest in road construction, are somewhat proud of this dubious achievement. In any event, nobody will dispute the fact that life in Moscow is in full swing.
Incidentally, traffic jams are the best indicator of Moscow's development level. It easily and quickly gave up the legacy of the industrial decades, when giant plants were located next to living quarters inhabited by hundreds of thousands of workers. Many could walk to work, or take a tram. Traffic jams were unheard of. Today, these plants are shut down or have been moved to the suburbs, the former workers and their children have acquired new professions, more in tune with the postindustrial era with its mobility, individualism, and a striving for comfort. A relative price of a car has dropped several times, and it is now affordable for many more Muscovites than before.
But Moscow has not made the final transition to the postindustrial era. It could improve its environment considerably by using the Internet and e-mail, which help create more home jobs and reduce traffic jams. So far these modern communication means are not used in full.
We will see in the near future whether Moscow will develop in this direction. One thing is clear, however - Moscow is much brighter, more interesting and surprising than it seems, just lake any big city.
