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Will Putin Dump Moscow As Russia's Capital City?
By Yaroslav Shamborovskyy
CNSNews.com Correspondent
May 20, 2002
Kiev, Ukraine (CNSNews.com) - Speculation is growing in Russia that the country's
seat of government may be moved from Moscow to St. Petersburg, after the Kremlin
press office published President Vladimir Putin's program of meetings for the next
two months, all of which are in St. Petersburg.
According to the Niezavisimaja Gazeta newspaper, Putin's meeting with President
Bush this Saturday will be held in St. Petersburg, Putin's 1952 birthplace and capital
of Russia before the 1917 revolution. So too will forthcoming meetings scheduled
with the leaders of Finland, Azerbaijan and Belarus.
Official buildings in St. Petersburg are being urgently restored. Plans include the
building of a new presidential residence and an international press-center - which
spells more high-level meetings and events there in the future.
The Russian weekly Argumenty i Fakty says the second city has effectively already
become the new capital, while the Niezavisimaja Gazeta paper reports that talk
about replacing Moscow with St. Petersburg are not "vain dreams" but a real
possibility.
"Sooner or later [the idea] will be supported nation-wide. The process had already
been started de facto," it concluded.
Russian lawmaker Piotr Shelishch said the mechanics of changing capital cities were
clear. "Moscow's status as capital is fixed by the constitution, so we just have to
pass
the necessary bill [to change it]," he said. Shelishch, who was also born in St.
Petersburg, strongly supports the idea and has raised it in the Duma.
'There is nothing unreal in moving the capital," said another St. Petersburg citizen,
national television star Yuri Stoyanov. "Moscow will become a business center, like
New York, and St. Petersburg will be the capital, like Washington D.C."
Stoyanov reported that many Duma members are already buying apartments in his
city.
Also backing the campaign is the St. Petersburg-based daily Smena, which said it
was time the city avenged its loss of status in 1917. It noted that since Putin's rise
to
power the issue had become a burning one.
"The rumors even predict moving the Duma and Russian Central Bank to St.
Petersburg," Smena added.
Muscovites are not as enthusiastic about the idea. The city's Duel newspaper
dismissed talk about moving the capital as the result of differences between Kremlin
employees hailing from the two cities.
Moscow, with a population of more than nine million, is currently both the seat of
government and the center of commerce in Russia, while St. Petersburg (pop. about
5.1 million) traditionally plays a role of "cultural capital."
But if St. Petersburg residents dream of going back to the pre-1917 era, Muscovites
can claim an even older heritage. Moscow was Russia's capital before 1712, when
Czar Peter the Great issued a decree granting that status to the new city bearing his
name.
Vladimir Lenin's communist government reversed the decision in 1918. The city's
name was later changed to Leningrad, but reverted to its imperial name after the
collapse of the Soviet Union.
E-mail a news tip to the Foreign Desk.
Send a Letter to the Editor about this article.
End<{{{
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