Nineteenth-century Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol once said his country has two problems: roads and fools. And roads, a new study claimed on Tuesday, cost many times more to build in Moscow than in US and European cities because of corruption.
Opposition figure Boris Nemtsov compiled facts and figures from open sources to shed light on the 17-year tenure of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov.
“We’ll never solve the problem of traffic under Luzhkov, no matter how much money is allocated for road construction,” Nemtsov told journalists. “The exorbitant prices are directly linked to corruption and ties between road builders and authorities. Traffic jams are about corruption.”
Luzhkov, who has overseen a construction boom in the capital, has often been accused of corruption and of helping advance the business interests of his wife, Yelena Baturina. A major property developer, Baturina is ranked by Forbes as Russia’s wealthiest woman.
Luzhkov has persistently denied allegations of wrongdoing and has successfully sued many accusers for libel.
A nationwide poll last year by the Public Opinion Foundation showed that Moscow was regarded as the most corrupt city in Russia, with 42 percent of Moscow residents polled admitting they had given bribes to public officials.
The anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International ranks Russia 147th out of 180 in its global corruption index.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced a drive against corruption earlier this year — but with little visible result.
Clogged roads are a major problem in Moscow, home to at least 10 million people with another 10 million traveling into the city each day.
Road construction proceeds slowly because the price is exorbitant compared with other countries, Nemtsov said.
Construction of Moscow’s new, fourth ring road is expected to cost 7.4 billion rubles (US$237 million) per kilometer, his study showed.
Road construction in China, the US and Europe hovers between US$3 million and US$6 million per kilometer, the report said.
The average cost of road construction in Washington, for comparison, was US$6.1 million per kilometer in 2002, Washington’s transportation department said.
City hall attributed the high costs to the demolition of residential housing in areas adjacent to the new ring road. The city has budgeted 13 billion rubles for the demolition, with 25.5 billion rubles to be spent on the construction proper. This, however, still puts the cost at an exorbitant US$209 million per kilometer.
Nemtsov blamed a lack of competition.
“We should hold tenders open to all road companies from around the globe,” he said. “The lack of competition leads to price hikes.”
In the 1990s, Nemtsov served as governor of one of Russia’s largest regions and then deputy prime minister under Russia’s first post-Soviet president, Boris Yeltsin. He has since become a prominent opposition figure.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but