Sergey Sobyanin (centre) meets local residents in Golovinsky district, Moscow. Photo: Mayor and Moscow Government Press Service. Denis Grishkin.
In the second decade of the new millennium, urbanism is popular in Russia. Beautification of parks, city planning, pedestrianisation of city centres, markets and outdoor spaces — the “urban agenda” has come to define a significant industry in Russia and a test site of state-society relations under authoritarian rule. Billed as apolitical on the surface, the urban agenda is, in fact, deeply political, opening up questions of democratic self-governance, frustrations with state bureaucracy and corruption.
