As tradition, in early autumn, Moscovites and foreign residents mark the Moscow City Day. In mid-September 2025, Moscow city, which stands on the popular Moskva River, marked its 878th year of its establishment with great colorful pomp and pageantry. Across the city, several forms of recreational activities and entertainment were held in different locations. Today, it is described as one of the greatest cities in the world. In his candid assessment, Russian President Vladimir Putin ranked it as second in the world among the largest urban economies, confidently charting a course for the future and laying a solid foundation for subsequent years and decades to come and for future generations.
The city serves as the political, economic, cultural, and scientific center of Russia and Eastern Europe. With the second-highest number of billionaires of any city (tied with Hong Kong), it is one of the world’s largest urban economies. Moscow was the host city of the 1980 Summer Olympics and one of the host cities of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The Luzhniki Stadium got an increased capacity of almost 10,000 new seats, in addition to a further two stadiums that have been built: the Dynamo Stadium and the Spartak Stadium, although the first one later was dismissed from having World Cup matches.
Today, thanks to the efforts of the architects and builders, Moscow has undergone diverse beautification and new architectural designs, which extended to micro-regions on the outskirts of its original during the Soviet period. Following the Soviet’s collapse and the appearance of Sergei Sobyanin as Moscow mayor, more and more significant reconstruction and an entire infrastructure have been undertaken, a fully integrated engineering and technical complex bringing together science, education, and production. Without doubt, it strengthens Moscow’s role as a key national hub for accelerated technological, industrial, and scientific development.
A clear example is the use of digital and medical technologies in the recently completed reconstruction of 343 children’s and adult polyclinics across the city and in the modernization of dozens of hospital buildings, including the newly opened complex of the Children’s Hospital of St. Vladimir.
Another important focus is the development of a fully-fledged unmanned systems economy in Moscow. Autonomous solutions are being actively tested in taxis, logistics, everyday services, water safety control, construction sites, firefighting, and street cleaning—all running on domestic software. An excellent result indeed.
For much of its architectural history, the city has changed from its Soviet period. Attempts also are being made to restore many of the city’s best-kept examples of pre-Soviet architecture, for instance, some five-story apartment buildings constructed before the mid-1960s. In spite of the overall appearance, Moscow is, in practical terms, pursuing serious and meaningful projects in education as well as in culture and the arts. These projects are to become a source of advanced experience for the entire nation, serving the tasks of education and upbringing, enhancing a sovereign world outlook, and fostering traditions and values.
Perhaps the most recognizable contributions include the world-class cinema cluster, which is steadily being formed and designed to accelerate the development of the entire domestic film industry. Moskino film park facilities are being constructed and launched, and soon the historic Gorky Film Studios will complete its revival.
Exhibitions, lectures, concerts, festivals, and sports events are becoming an integral part of everyday life for all generations of Muscovites. Together with businesses and creative industries, Moscow is shaping a unique atmosphere and identity in the city, a place where people want to live, study, work, run businesses, feel proud of the past, and move forward together with the rest of Russia.
Moscow is now moving from experimentation to the large-scale use of autonomous transport. Just after two years of testing, the first driverless trams in Russia began regular service. The next step will be the automation of the metro. Importantly, along with technical upgrades, new metro lines and stations are being built. Another four stations opened in mid-September 2025 on the Troitskaya Line. The construction of the Rublevo-Arkhangelskaya and Biryulevskaya lines is ongoing, which will radically improve public transport accessibility for two million residents of Moscow and the Moscow Region.
In a ranking of the safest cities by The Economist in 2023, Moscow occupied the 38th position with a score of 62.5 points. The general level of crime is quite low. More than 170,000 surveillance cameras in Moscow are connected to the facial recognition system. The authorities recognized the successful two-month experiment with automatic recognition of faces, gender, and age of people in real time—and deployed the system to the whole city. The network of video surveillance unites access video cameras (95% of residential apartment buildings in the capital), cameras in the territory and in buildings of schools and kindergartens, at the MCC stations, stadiums, public transport stops, and bus stations, in parks, and underground passages.
There is a grandiose plan for the future. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin and his creative and dedicated team continue setting new tasks and achieving more ambitious goals for the benefit of Moscow and the great homeland, the capital city of Russia. Without doubt, Moscow has every opportunity to achieve new quality levels and ensure confident, steady, and long-term progress. Moscow’s steady progress is, therefore, predictably creating the harmonious living conditions and raising the quality of comprehensive development for the city’s population. According to Russia’s Federal Migration Service, Moscow holds just 1.8 million official “guests” who have temporary residency on the basis of visas or other documentation, giving a staggering legal population of 14.8 million.
