Mayor of Moscow for the merger of Moscow and the Moscow region, if the Kremlin does not mind

The mayor of Moscow said that he did not see fundamental obstacles to the unification of Moscow and the Moscow region. According to him, now the capital and the Moscow region are a single economic system, and recently the region has significantly improved its economic indicators. So that the mayor is not against unification, if the idea, of course, is supported from the Kremlin.

According to the mayor, the cities of federal significance are Moscow and St. Petersburg can follow the example of the merging regions of Russia. Moreover, in Moscow, according to Luzhkov, we can say that the economic merger with the region has already occurred.

“This is a single economic system and it is quite possible to talk about uniting a unified subject of the Federation of Moscow and the Moscow Region,” Yuri Luzhkov said on Friday, answering the questions of radio listeners on the air of the Russian News Service Radio.

"This thing is useful in many respects. But only Moscow is the subject of the Federation, which in economically gives about 20-25% of contributions to the country's budget from the volume that all regions give," Luzhkov said.

So in the case of unification with the Moscow region, which, according to the capital's mayor, has recently "added very decently", a gigantic subject of the federation may appear from the point of view of the economy.

"When we are talking about the unification of two such economic systems in the Russian state, such a constituent entity of the federation may appear, which is a third in the economic potential of the country. This is already a question from the point of view of controllability, in terms of proportions in the potentials of the subjects of the country's federation," Luzhkov said.

However, according to the mayor, the mercy of merging deserves consideration. “I think that if the country's leadership would support such a thought, then the study of this issue would make sense. I don’t know what the final solution would take in this regard, because it is an extremely difficult process, but there are a number of serious directions in such a production,” Luzhkov summed up.

Governor of the Moscow Region against

Boris Gromov, the governor of the Moscow Region, did not like the offer of the Moscow Mayor. According to Gromov, such a merger will lead to the emergence of a poorly controlled "monster". Commenting on the opinion of Luzhkov, Gromov noted that the unification of the regions does not make sense.

Gromov told Interfax: “If suddenly Moscow and the Moscow region still unite,” the governor continued, “from the point of view of the financial, economic, scientific and any other potential, this will be a real monster. In addition, the question arises - how will it be controlled?”

“As the result of all this, you can ask a question, why is this necessary?” Said Gromov. In any case, according to the governor, the issue of their unification does not depend on the opinions of the heads of regions. “I think that the association of the two regions will not depend on my comment or on the commentary of Luzhkov,” Gromov said.

In turn, the chairman of the Moscow Regional Duma Valery Aksakov said that the association is hardly possible, if only because the inhabitants of Moscow will oppose this. When conducting a possible referendum on the association of Moscow and the Moscow region, Muscovites will almost certainly speak out against, since a significant part from the budget of Moscow will go to support municipalities of the Moscow Region.

“It will be almost the same as when uniting the GDR and Germany,” Aksakov emphasized. “It is clear when the remote regions of Russia are united, they need this in order to strengthen their economic potential. But the question of combining the first and second regions in the state is a very serious issue and painstaking work is needed to solve it,” said the chairman of the Moscow Regional Duma.