*The first residents will arrive in about three and a half years. Facilities for scientific research, postgraduate and doctoral studies, laboratories, housing, offices, kindergartens, schools, and hospitals will be built. Four highway interchanges will also be constructed. Given the size of the site (380 hectares, or 3.8 square kilometers) and the projected population, it would be more efficient to build low-rise housing or townhouses, says Konstantin Popov, chairman of the board of Inkom. In total, that would amount to roughly 1.5 million square meters of real estate (1 million for housing, the rest for social infrastructure). Popov estimates the minimum investment at $2 billion: “Without the research component, this looks more like yet another megaproject to develop Moscow-region land with low-rise housing.” */////// An absolute must-read. The climax of modernization and the apopheosis of innovation. A separate police force, no local government. Their own “good” migration service, tax service, and emergency service. “A special legal regime allowing people to focus entirely on research activity, without being distracted by bureaucracy and formalities.” Permits from officials are abolished altogether. Do whatever you want. Vekselberg is in charge.
There is, however, one question: if it has finally been acknowledged that modernization and development require scrapping these idiotic permit procedures, getting rid of most officials, completely overhauling the police, and so on, then why not do it across the entire country? Or at least within some of the federal regions. Why is this universal paradise being built on just 380 hectares? And are we supposed to stand outside the fence and watch happiness from afar? Obviously, a wonderful modernization regime like this will require secrecy. It’s no accident that everyone compares it to a ZATO (a Soviet-style closed administrative-territorial formation), that is, a closed city. A barrier gate stands between you and the future. And that same gate will prevent any oversight of how the money is being spent, how companies are selected, and who gets the wonderful apartments. I, for one, already have several excellent inquiries in mind about Skolkovo. But where am I supposed to send them? To Vekselberg’s strange foundation? Obviously, he’ll just tell everyone to get lost. He has no obligation to answer. He’ll probably even say: "you’re distracting me from a unique experiment: I took apart a little motor, and there were two magnets inside. I bring them closer together, and they repel each other and tumble around amusingly. I’m thinking about how to put this to work for the country". Reading the Vedomosti article finally clarified for me the real motives behind Skolkovo. The children have grown up. Putin’s daughters, and everyone else’s too. They’re starting families. They need housing. Of course, buying a place on Rublyovka (an elite suburb outside Moscow) or Ostozhenka (one of Moscow’s most expensive central districts) is no problem, but somehow it’s just not done. And here—presto—a gated community. Without those awful high fences. With polite police, no obnoxious municipal maintenance office, kindergartens, and hospitals. A high educational level among the neighbors is guaranteed, as is the absence of homeless people and antisocial elements (of whom there are plenty even on Ostozhenka). Eco-friendliness and energy efficiency. Modern architecture commissioned for 4.6 billion rubles in budget money (the Modernization Commission!). Grandchildren frolic on emerald lawns alongside the grandchildren of Nobel laureates. Chubais and nanotechnology have won again. Skolkovo is Russia compressed to nanoscale size, modernized and populated by the “best representatives, selected by a state commission.”