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.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to