''Yekaterinburg is the most appropriate city as a new capital''
Depriving Moscow of the official status of the main city of the federation is seriously being discussed in Russia
The news that the Russian capital can be transferred from Moscow to another city has suddenly broken into the information space. The Doctrine of Demoscowisation has been elaborated for this initiative that has already been sent to Vladimir Putin. Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin sarcastically called the idea of the capital transfer ''brilliant'', but other authorities noted that such changes will require significant cash injections. What may be an option to the capital transfer and why Kazan cannot be the main city of Russia — read in the material of Realnoe Vremya.
The transfer will affect the health of the nation?
Chairman of the supervisory board of the Institute of demography, migration and regional development Yury Krupnov has sent to Russian President Vladimir Putin the project of the Doctrine of Demoscowisation, in which he proposed to transfer the capital of the country beyond the Urals, reports RT. Krupnov explained the transfer by the need to move away from the economy centered in Moscow and devote more resources to development of the whole country, and especially the Far East and Siberia. In addition, according to Yury Krupnov, Moscow region ''has absorbed almost one fifth of the entire Russian population'', and national development takes place only in 15-25 big cities, where more than half of the population live.
In the doctrine, Krupnov tells about the need to abandon capital urbanization in favour of low-rise landscape manor that will allow ''Russians to develop the endless wide expances, their own land and will contribute to abandoning forced small families and restoring demographic growth.''
''Involuntarily accumulating in narrow, limited areas, Russian people will continue to lose momentum life creativity,'' says Krupnov, considering that this may lead to a loss by Russia of its geopolitical advantages, as well as sovereignty over remote territories from large urban areas.
The project of the capital transfer from Moscow beyond the Urals was sent to the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia, reports Lenta.ru.
There won't be a ''battle''
A reaction of Mayor of Moscow Sergey Sobyanin immediately followed. ''Transferring the capital to the Far East is a ''brilliant'' idea. Spending a trillion to send officials 8,000 km away from 110 million Russians living in the European part. Officials were exiled to Siberia and to the East before, but in a less expensive way,'' replied the mayor on his page in VK to Krupnov.
In his turn, the initiator of the idea of the capital transfer Yury Krupnov invited Sobyanin for debate, leaving an appropriate comment to the post of the mayor. Sobyanin replied with another post, ''With all due respect to Yury Vasilyevich, debating about fake ideas is wasting time. With the same success it is possible to debate the question ''is there life on Mars''.
Yekaterinburg — new capital city
Other politicians also did not stand aside. First Deputy Chairman of the Duma Committee on federal structure and local self-governance Irina Guseva stated that a transfer of the capital from Moscow does not make sense. According to the deputy, it is more important to review ''intergovernmental relations'' and to develop the advantages of each region, reports Lenta.ru.
Another deputy, first Deputy Chairman of the Duma Committee on state construction and legislation, Mikhail Yemelyanov, said that from a theoretical point of view, the initiative is interesting and worthy of substantive consideration. ''But from a practical point of view, now a capital transfer is almost impossible due to the fact that certain costs are needed,'' RIA Novosti quotes the official.
One of those who not only supported the initiative of a transfer but offered the own version of the capital — a member of the Supreme Council of the party United Russia Dmitry Orlov.
''The most appropriate solution would be Yekaterinburg, a part of the capital functions could be delegated to several cities,'' posted Orlov in Facebook.
Why Kazan cannot be the capital of Russia?
An opinion on why Yekaterinburg has a chance to become the capital and Kazan – no was expressed by the head of the Department of urban development at the Kazan State University of architecture and construction Alexander Dembich.
''Yekaterinburg is the most appropriate city as the capital as it is located in the centre of the country, near the Eastern borders of the country, and it has one of the most powerful potentials. Moscow takes all road and rail traffic to Russia, but Kazan doesn't. In addition to Kazan, the roads to Siberia go through Samara, Ulyanovsk — there are several options. Even in this respect, Kazan has little chance of becoming the capital of the country. Besides, Tatarstan is still a national republic, which is also not conducive for Kazan to become Russia's capital,'' said the city planner.
At the same time, as Dembich admitted, he sees no reason for transferring the capital, and the position of Moscow, in which everything focuses on this city, is caused by the policies of the state.
''I do not understand why we need this transfer. I think it is unrealistic idea. We need only to slightly change the policy of the state in terms of regional development, strengthen this direction but not to transfer the capital. Well, the capital is changed, and another city will start to develop very fast, and that's all that's gonna change?'' said Aleksander Dembich. ''It is not necessarily the political and economic centres should be concentrated in one place. It's like in Brazil: relatively newly built Brasilia is the political centre, and the economy is in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Moscow is still superior to all Russian cities: more shops and tourists, more money, and the traffic flow is higher. The transfer of the capital – it is expenditures at trillions of rubles,'' said the city planner.