title: Moscow

text: The Kremlin was rebuilt in the 15th century. Its towers and some of its churches were built by Italian architects, lending the city some of the aurae of the renaissance. From the end of the 15th century, the city was embellished by masonry structures such as monasteries, palaces, walls, towers, and churches.


title: Moscow

text: The city's appearance had not changed much by the 18th century. Houses were made of pine and spruce logs, with shingled roofs plastered with sod or covered by birch bark. The rebuilding of Moscow in the second half of the 18th century was necessitated by constant fires and the needs of the nobility. Much of the wooden city was replaced by buildings in the classical style.


title: Moscow

text: For much of its architectural history, Moscow was dominated by Orthodox churches. However, the overall appearance of the city changed drastically during Soviet times, especially as a result of Joseph Stalin's large-scale effort to "modernize" Moscow. Stalin's plans for the city included a network of broad avenues and roadways, some of them over ten lanes wide, which, while greatly simplifying movement through the city, were constructed at the expense of a great number of historical buildings and districts. Among the many casualties of Stalin's demolitions was the Sukharev Tower, a longtime city landmark, as well as mansions and commercial buildings The city's newfound status as the capital of a deeply secular nation, made religiously significant buildings especially vulnerable to demolition. Many of the city's churches, which in most cases were some of Moscow's oldest and most prominent buildings, were destroyed; some notable examples include the Kazan Cathedral and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. During the 1990s, both were rebuilt. Many smaller churches, however, were lost.


title: Moscow

text: While the later Stalinist period was characterized by the curtailing of creativity and architectural innovation, the earlier post-revolutionary years saw a plethora of radical new buildings created in the city. Especially notable were the constructivist architects associated with VKHUTEMAS, responsible for such landmarks as Lenin's Mausoleum. Another prominent architect was Vladimir Shukhov, famous for Shukhov Tower, just one of many hyperboloid towers designed by Shukhov. It was built between 1919 and 1922 as a transmission tower for a Russian broadcasting company. Shukhov also left a lasting legacy to the Constructivist architecture of early Soviet Russia. He designed spacious elongated shop galleries, most notably the GUM department store on Red Square, bridged with innovative metal-and-glass vaults.


title: Moscow

text: Perhaps the most recognizable contributions of the Stalinist period are the so-called Seven Sisters, seven massive skyscrapers scattered throughout the city at about an equal distance from the Kremlin. A defining feature of Moscow's skyline, their imposing form was allegedly inspired by the Manhattan Municipal Building in New York City, and their style—with intricate exteriors and a large central spire—has been described as Stalinist Gothic architecture. All seven towers can be seen from most high points in the city; they are among the tallest constructions in central Moscow apart from the Ostankino Tower, which, when it was completed in 1967, was the highest free-standing land structure in the world and today remains the world's seventy-second tallest, ranking among buildings such as the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, Taipei 101 in Taiwan and the CN Tower in Toronto.


title: Moscow

text: The Soviet goal of providing housing for every family, and the rapid growth of Moscow's population, led to the construction of large, monotonous housing blocks. Most of these date from the post-Stalin era and the styles are often named after the leader then in power (Brezhnev, Khrushchev, etc.). They are usually badly maintained.


title: Moscow

text: Although the city still has some five-story apartment buildings constructed before the mid-1960s, more recent apartment buildings are usually at least nine floors tall, and have elevators. It is estimated that Moscow has over twice as many elevators as New York City and four times as many as Chicago. Moslift, one of the city's major elevator operating companies, has about 1500 elevator mechanics on call, to release residents trapped in elevators.


title: Moscow

text: Stalinist-era buildings, mostly found in the central part of the city, are massive and usually ornamented with Socialist realism motifs that imitate classical themes. However, small churches—almost always Eastern Orthodox– found across the city provide glimpses of its past. The Old Arbat Street, a tourist street that was once the heart of a bohemian area, preserves most of its buildings from prior to the 20th century. Many buildings found off the main streets of the inner city (behind the Stalinist façades of Tverskaya Street, for example) are also examples of bourgeois architecture typical of Tsarist times. Ostankino Palace, Kuskovo, Uzkoye and other large estates just outside Moscow originally belong to nobles from the Tsarist era, and some , both inside and outside the city, are open to Muscovites and tourists.


title: Moscow

text: Attempts are being made to restore many of the city's best-kept examples of pre-Soviet architecture. These restored structures are easily spotted by their bright new colors and spotless façades. There are a few examples of notable, early Soviet avant-garde work too, such as the house of the architect Konstantin Melnikov in the Arbat area. Many of these restorations were criticized for alleged disrespect of historical authenticity. Facadism is also widely practiced. Later examples of interesting Soviet architecture are usually marked by their impressive size and the semi-Modernist styles employed, such as with the Novy Arbat project, familiarly known as "false teeth of Moscow" and notorious for the wide-scale disruption of a historic area in central Moscow involved in the project.


title: Moscow

text: Plaques on house exteriors will inform passers-by that a well-known personality once lived there. Frequently, the plaques are dedicated to Soviet celebrities not well known outside (or often, like with decorated generals and revolutionaries, now both inside) of Russia. There are also many "museum houses" of famous Russian writers, composers, and artists in the city.


title: Moscow

text: In recent years, the city administration has been widely criticized for heavy destruction that has affected many historical buildings. As much as a third of historic Moscow has been destroyed in the past few years to make space for luxury apartments and hotels. Other historical buildings, including such landmarks as the 1930 Moskva hotel and the 1913 department store Voyentorg, have been razed and reconstructed anew, with the inevitable loss of historical value. Critics blame the government for not enforcing conservation laws: in the last 12 years, more than 50 buildings with monument status were torn down, several of those dating back to the 17th century. Some critics also wonder if the money used for the reconstruction of razed buildings could not be used for the renovation of decaying structures, which include many works by architect Konstantin Melnikov and Mayakovskaya metro station.


title: Moscow

text: Some organizations, such as Moscow Architecture Preservation Society and Save Europe's Heritage, are trying to draw the international public attention to these problems.


title: Moscow

text: There are 96 parks and 18 gardens in Moscow, including four botanical gardens. There are of green zones besides of forests. Moscow is a very green city, if compared to other cities of comparable size in Western Europe and North America; this is partly due to a history of having green "yards" with trees and grass, between residential buildings. There are on average of parks per person in Moscow compared with 6 for Paris, 7.5 in London and 8.6 in New York.


title: Moscow

text: Gorky Park (officially the Central Park of Culture and Rest named after Maxim Gorky), was founded in 1928. The main part () along the Moskva river contains estrades, children's attractions (including the "Observation Wheel" water ponds with boats and water bicycles), dancing, tennis courts and other sports facilities. It borders the Neskuchny Garden (), the oldest park in Moscow and a former imperial residence, created as a result of the integration of three estates in the 18th century. The Garden features the Green Theater, one of the largest open amphitheaters in Europe, able to hold up to 15 thousand people. Several parks include a section known as a "Park of Culture and Rest", sometimes alongside a much wilder area (this includes parks such as Izmaylovsky, Fili and Sokolniki). Some parks are designated as Forest Parks (lesopark).


title: Moscow

text: Izmaylovsky Park, created in 1931, is one of the largest urban parks in the world along with Richmond Park in London. Its area of is six times greater than that of Central Park in New York.


title: Moscow

text: Bauman Garden, officially founded in 1920 and renamed in 1922 after the bolshevik Nikolay Bauman, is one of the oldest parks in Moscow. It is standing on the site of the former Golitsyn estate and eighteenth-century public garden.


title: Moscow

text: <nowiki> </nowiki>Sokolniki Park, named after the falcon hunting that occurred there in the past, is one of the oldest parks in Moscow and has an area of . A central circle with a large fountain is surrounded by birch, maple, and elm tree alleys. A labyrinth composed of green paths lies beyond the park's ponds.


title: Moscow

text: Losiny Ostrov National Park ("Elk Island" National Park), with a total area of more than , borders Sokolniki Park and was Russia's first national park. It is quite wild, and is also known as the "city taiga" – elk can be seen there.


title: Moscow

text: Tsytsin Main Botanical Garden of Academy of Sciences, founded in 1945 is the largest in Europe. It covers the territory of bordering the All-Russia Exhibition Center and contains a live exhibition of more than 20 thousand species of plants from around the world, as well as a lab for scientific research. It contains a rosarium with 20 thousand rose bushes, a dendrarium, and an oak forest, with the average age of trees exceeding 100 years. There is a greenhouse taking up more than of land.


title: Moscow

text: The All-Russian Exhibition Center (Всероссийский выставочный центр), formerly known as the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (VSKhV) and later Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy (VDNKh), though officially named a "permanent trade show", is one of the most prominent examples of Stalinist-era monumental architecture. Among the large spans of a recreational park, areas are scores of elaborate pavilions, each representing either a branch of Soviet industry and science or a USSR republic. Even though during the 1990s it was, and for some part still is, misused as a gigantic shopping center (most of the pavilions are rented out for small businesses), it still retains the bulk of its architectural landmarks, including two monumental fountains ("Stone Flower" and "Friendship of Nations") and a 360 degrees panoramic cinema. In 2014 the park returned to the name Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy, and in the same year, huge renovation works had been started.


title: Moscow

text: "Lilac Park", founded in 1958, has a permanent sculpture display and a large rosarium. Moscow has always been a popular destination for tourists. Some of the more famous attractions include the city's UNESCO World Heritage Site, Moscow Kremlin and Red Square, which was built between the 14th and 17th centuries. The Church of the Ascension at Kolomenskoye, which dates from 1532, is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site and another popular attraction.


title: Moscow

text: Near the new Tretyakov Gallery there is a sculpture garden, Museon, often called "the graveyard of fallen monuments" that displays statues of the former Soviet Union that were removed from their place after its dissolution.


title: Moscow

text: Other attractions include the Moscow Zoo, a zoological garden in two sections (the valleys of two streams) linked by a bridge, with nearly a thousand species and more than 6,500 specimens. Each year, the zoo attracts more than 1.2 million visitors. Many of Moscow's parks and landscaped gardens are protected natural environments.


title: Moscow

text: Moscow's road system is centered roughly on the Kremlin at the heart of the city. From there, roads generally span outwards to intersect with a sequence of circular roads ("rings").


title: Moscow

text: Aside from the aforementioned hierarchy, line 5 of Moscow Metro is a circle-shaped looped subway line (hence the name "Koltsevaya Liniya", literally "ring line"), which is located between the "Sadovoye Koltso" and Third Transport Ring.


title: Moscow

text: The outermost ring within Moscow is the Moscow Ring Road (often called "MKAD", acronym word for Russian "Московская Кольцевая Автомобильная Дорога"), which forms the cultural boundary of the city, and was established in the 1950s. It is to note the method of building the road (usage of ground elevation instead of concrete columns throughout the whole way) formed a wall-like barrier that obstacles building roads under the MKAD highway itself).


title: Moscow

text: Outside Moscow, some of the roads encompassing the city continue to follow this circular pattern seen inside city limits, with the notable examples of "Betonka" roads (highways A107 and A108), originally made of concrete pads.


title: Moscow

text: In order to reduce transit traffic on MKAD, the new ring road (called "CKAD" - "Centralnaya Koltsevaya Avtomobilnaya Doroga", "Central Ring Road") is now under construction beyond the MKAD.


title: Moscow

text: One of the most notable art museums in Moscow is the Tretyakov Gallery, which was founded by Pavel Tretyakov, a wealthy patron of the arts who donated a large private collection to the city. The Tretyakov Gallery is split into two buildings. The Old Tretyakov gallery, the original gallery in the Tretyakovskaya area on the south bank of the Moskva River, houses works in the classic Russian tradition. The works of famous pre-Revolutionary painters, such as Ilya Repin, as well as the works of early Russian icon painters can be found here. Visitors can even see rare originals by early 15th-century iconographer Andrei Rublev.


title: Moscow

text: The New Tretyakov gallery, created in Soviet times, mainly contains the works of Soviet artists, as well as of a few contemporary paintings, but there is some overlap with the Old Tretyakov Gallery for early 20th-century art. The new gallery includes a small reconstruction of Vladimir Tatlin's famous "Monument to the Third International" and a mixture of other avant-garde works by artists like Kazimir Malevich and Wassily Kandinsky. Socialist realism features can also be found within the halls of the New Tretyakov Gallery.


title: Moscow

text: Another art museum in the city of Moscow is the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, which was founded by, among others, the father of Marina Tsvetaeva. The Pushkin Museum is similar to the British Museum in London in that its halls are a cross-section of exhibits on world civilisations, with many copies of ancient sculptures. However, it also hosts paintings from every major Western era; works by Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, and Pablo Picasso are present in the museum's collection.


title: Moscow

text: The State Historical Museum of Russia (Государственный Исторический музей) is a museum of Russian history located between Red Square and Manege Square in Moscow. Its exhibitions range from relics of the prehistoric tribes inhabiting present-day Russia, through priceless artworks acquired by members of the Romanov dynasty. The total number of objects in the museum's collection numbers is several million. The Polytechnical Museum, founded in 1872 is the largest technical museum in Russia, offering a wide array of historical inventions and technological achievements, including humanoid automata from the 18th century and the first Soviet computers. Its collection contains more than 160,000 items. The Borodino Panorama museum located on Kutuzov Avenue provides an opportunity for visitors to experience being on a battlefield with a 360° diorama. It is a part of the large historical memorial commemorating the victory in the Patriotic War of 1812 over Napoleon's army, that includes also the triumphal arch, erected in 1827. There is also a military history museum that includes statues, and military hardware.


title: Moscow

text: Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics under the Monument to the Conquerors of Space at the end of Cosmonauts Alley is the central memorial place for the Russian space officials.


title: Moscow

text: The Shchusev State Museum of Architecture is the national museum of Russian architecture by the name of the architect Alexey Shchusev near the Kremlin area.


title: Moscow

text: Moscow will get its own branch of the Hermitage Museum in 2024, with authorities having agreed upon the final project, to be executed by Hani Rashid, co-founder of New York-based 'Asymptote Architecture' - the same bureau that's behind the city's stock market building, the Busan-based World Business Center Solomon Tower and the Strata Tower in Abu-Dhabi.


title: Moscow

text: Moscow is the heart of the Russian performing arts, including ballet and film, with 68 museums 103 theaters, 132 cinemas and 24 concert halls. Among Moscow's theaters and ballet studios is the Bolshoi Theatre and the Malyi Theatre as well as Vakhtangov Theatre and Moscow Art Theatre.


title: Moscow

text: The Moscow International Performance Arts Center, opened in 2003, also known as Moscow International House of Music, is known for its performances in classical music. It has the largest organ in Russia installed in Svetlanov Hall.


title: Moscow

text: There are also two large circuses in Moscow: Moscow State Circus and Moscow Circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard named after Yuri Nikulin.


title: Moscow

text: The Mosfilm studio was at the heart of many classic films, as it is responsible for both artistic and mainstream productions. However, despite the continued presence and reputation of internationally renowned Russian filmmakers, the once prolific native studios are much quieter. Rare and historical films may be seen in the Salut cinema, where films from the Museum of Cinema collection are shown regularly. International film festivals such as the Moscow International Film Festival, Stalker, Artdocfest, and Moscow Jewish Film Festival are staged in Moscow.


title: Moscow

text: Over 500 Olympic sports champions lived in the city by 2005. Moscow is home to 63 stadiums (besides eight football and eleven light athletics maneges), of which Luzhniki Stadium is the largest and the 4th biggest in Europe (it hosted the 1998–99 UEFA Cup, 2007–08 UEFA Champions League finals, the 1980 Summer Olympics, and the 2018 FIFA World Cup with 7 games total, including the final). Forty other sports complexes are located within the city, including 24 with artificial ice. The Olympic Stadium was the world's first indoor arena for bandy and hosted the Bandy World Championship twice. Moscow was again the host of the competition in 2010, this time in Krylatskoye. That arena has also hosted the World Speed Skating Championships. There are also seven horse racing tracks in Moscow, of which Central Moscow Hippodrome, founded in 1834, is the largest.


title: Moscow

text: Moscow was the host city of the 1980 Summer Olympics, with the yachting events being held at Tallinn, in present-day Estonia. Large sports facilities and the main international airport, Sheremetyevo Terminal 2, were built in preparation for the 1980 Summer Olympics. Moscow had made a bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics. However, when final voting commenced on July 6, 2005, Moscow was the first city to be eliminated from further rounds. The Games were awarded to London.


title: Moscow

text: The most titled ice hockey team in the Soviet Union and in the world, HC CSKA Moscow comes from Moscow. Other big ice hockey clubs from Moscow are HC Dynamo Moscow, which was the second most titled team in the Soviet Union, and HC Spartak Moscow.


title: Moscow

text: The most titled Soviet, Russian, and one of the most titled Euroleague clubs, is the basketball club from Moscow PBC CSKA Moscow. Moscow hosted the EuroBasket in 1953 and 1965.


title: Moscow

text: The most titled volleyball team in the Soviet Union and in Europe (CEV Champions League) is VC CSKA Moscow.


title: Moscow

text: In football, FC Spartak Moscow has won more championship titles in the Russian Premier League than any other team. They were second only to FC Dynamo Kyiv in Soviet times. PFC CSKA Moscow became the first Russian football team to win a UEFA title, the UEFA Cup (present-day UEFA Europa League). FC Lokomotiv Moscow, FC Dynamo Moscow and FC Torpedo Moscow are other professional football teams also based in Moscow.


title: Moscow

text: Moscow houses other prominent football, ice hockey, and basketball teams. Because sports organisations in the Soviet Union were once highly centralized, two of the best Union-level teams represented defence and law-enforcing agencies: the Armed Forces (CSKA) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Dinamo). There were army and police teams in most major cities. As a result, Spartak, CSKA, and Dinamo were among the best-funded teams in the USSR.


title: Moscow

text: The Irina Viner-Usmanova Gymnastics Palace is located in the Luzniki Olympic Complex. The building works started in 2017 and the opening ceremony took place on June 18, 2019. The investor of the Palace is the billionaire Alisher Usmanov, husband of the former gymnast and gymnastics coach Irina Viner-Usmanova. The total surface of the building is 23,500 m, which include 3 fitness rooms, locker rooms, rooms reserved for referees and coaches, saunas, a canteen, a cafeteria, 2 ball halls, a Medical center, a hall reserved for journalists, and a hotel for athletes.


title: Moscow

text: Because of Moscow's cold local climate, winter sports have a following. Many of Moscow's large parks offer marked trails for skiing and frozen ponds for skating.


title: Moscow

text: Moscow hosts the annual Kremlin Cup, a popular tennis tournament on both the WTA and ATP tours. It is one of the ten Tier-I events on the women's tour and a host of Russian players feature every year.


title: Moscow

text: SC Olimpiyskiy hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, the first and so far the only Eurovision Song Contest arranged in Russia.


title: Moscow

text: Slava Moscow is a professional rugby club, competing in the national Professional Rugby League. Former rugby league heavyweights RC Lokomotiv have entered the same league . The Luzhniki Stadium also hosted the 2013 Rugby World Cup Sevens.


title: Moscow

text: In bandy, one of the most successful clubs in the world is 20 times Russian League champions Dynamo Moscow. They have also won the World Cup thrice and European Cup six times.


title: Moscow

text: MFK Dinamo Moskva is one of the major futsal clubs in Europe, having won the Futsal Champions League title once.


title: Moscow

text: When Russia was selected to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the Luzhniki Stadium got an increased capacity, by almost 10,000 new seats, in addition to a further two stadiums that have been built: the Dynamo Stadium, and the Spartak Stadium, although the first one later was dismissed from having World Cup matches.


title: Moscow

text: The city is full of clubs, restaurants, and bars. Tverskaya Street is also one of the busiest shopping streets in Moscow.


title: Moscow

text: The adjoining Tretyakovsky Proyezd, also south of Tverskaya Street, in Kitai-gorod, is host to upmarket boutique stores such as Bulgari, Tiffany & Co., Armani, Prada and Bentley. Nightlife in Moscow has moved on since Soviet times and today the city has many of the world's largest nightclubs. Clubs, bars, creative spaces and restaurants-turned-into-dancefloors are flooding Moscow streets with new openings every year. The hottest area is located around the old chocolate factory, where bars, nightclubs, galleries, cafés and restaurants are placed.


title: Moscow

text: Dream Island is an amusement park in Moscow that opened on February 29, 2020. It is the largest indoor theme park in Europe.


title: Moscow

text: The park covers 300,000 square meters. During the park's construction, 150 acres of nature trees unique and rare animals and birds and plants on the peninsula were destroyed. The appearance is in the style of a fairytale castle similar to Disneyland. The park has 29 unique attractions with many rides, as well as pedestrian malls with fountains and cycle paths. The complex includes a landscaped park along with a concert hall, a cinema, a hotel, a children's sailing school, restaurants, and shops.


title: Moscow

text: According to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, Moscow is an independent federal subject of the Russian Federation, the so-called city of federal importance.


title: Moscow

text: The Mayor of Moscow is the leading official in the executive, leading the Government of Moscow, which is the highest organ of executive power.


title: Moscow

text: The Moscow City Duma is the City Duma (city council or local parliament) and local laws must be approved by it. It includes 45 members who are elected for a five-year term on Single-mandate constituency basis.


title: Moscow

text: From 2006 to 2012, direct elections of the mayor were not held due to changes in the Charter of the city of Moscow, the mayor was appointed by presidential decree. The first direct elections from the time of the 2003 vote were to be held after the expiration of the current mayor in 2015, however, in connection with his resignation of his own free will, they took place in September 2013.


title: Moscow

text: Local administration is carried out through eleven prefectures, uniting the districts of Moscow into administrative districts on a territorial basis, and 125 regional administrations. According to the law "On the organization of local self-government in the city of Moscow", since the beginning of 2003, the executive bodies of local self-government are municipalities, representative bodies are municipal assemblies, whose members are elected in accordance with the Charter of the intracity municipality.


title: Moscow

text: In Moscow, as in a city endowed with the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the legislative, executive, and judicial federal authorities of the country are located, with the exception of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, which has been located in Saint Petersburg since 2008.


title: Moscow

text: The supreme executive authority - the Government of the Russian Federation - is located in the House of the Government of the Russian Federation on in the center of Moscow. The State Duma sits on . The Federation Council is located in a building on . The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and the Supreme Court of Arbitration of the Russian Federation are also located in Moscow.


title: Moscow

text: In addition, the Moscow Kremlin is the official residence of the President of the Russian Federation. The president's working residence in the Kremlin is located in the Senate Palace.


title: Moscow

text: According to the ranking of the safest cities made by The Economist Moscow occupies the 37th position with a score of 68,5 points percent. The general level of crime is quite low. More than 170,000 surveillance cameras in Moscow are connected to the facial recognition system. The authorities recognized the successful two-month experiment with automatic recognition of faces, gender, and age of people in real-time - and then they deployed the system to the whole city. The network of video surveillance unites access video cameras (95% of residential apartment buildings in the capital), cameras in the territory and in buildings of schools and kindergartens, at the MCC stations, stadiums, public transport stops, and bus stations, in parks, underground passages.


title: Moscow

text: The emergency numbers are the same as in all the other regions of Russia: 112 is the Single Emergency Number, 101 is the number of the Fire Service and Ministry of Emergency Situations, 102 is the Police one, 103 is the ambulance one, 104 is the Emergency Gas number. Moscow's EMS is the second most efficient one among the world's megacities, as reported by PwC during the presentation of the international study Analysis of EMS Efficiency in Megacities of the World.


title: Moscow

text: The entire city of Moscow is headed by one mayor (Sergey Sobyanin). The city of Moscow is divided into twelve administrative okrugs and 125 districts.


title: Moscow

text: The Russian capital's town-planning development began to show as early as the 12th century when the city was founded. The central part of Moscow grew by consolidating with suburbs in line with medieval principles of urban development when strong fortress walls would gradually spread along the circle streets of adjacent new settlements. The first circular defence walls set the trajectory of Moscow's rings, laying the groundwork for the future planning of the Russian capital.


title: Moscow

text: The following fortifications served as the city's circular defense boundaries at some point in history: the Kremlin walls, Zemlyanoy Gorod (Earthwork Town), the Kamer-Kollezhsky Rampart, the Garden Ring, and the small railway ring. The Moscow Ring Road (MKAD) has been Moscow's boundary since 1960. Also in the form of a circle are the main Moscow subway line, the Ring Line, and the so-called Third Automobile Ring, which was completed in 2005. Hence, the characteristic radial-circle planning continues to define Moscow's further development. However, contemporary Moscow has also engulfed a number of territories outside the MKAD, such as Solntsevo, Butovo, and the town of Zelenograd. A part of Moscow Oblast's territory was merged into Moscow on July 1, 2012; as a result, Moscow is no longer fully surrounded by Moscow Oblast and now also has a border with Kaluga Oblast. In all, Moscow gained about and 230,000 inhabitants. Moscow's Mayor Sergey Sobyanin lauded the expansion that will help Moscow and the neighboring region, a "mega-city" of twenty million people, to develop "harmonically."


title: Moscow

text: All administrative okrugs and districts have their own coats of arms and flags as well as individual heads of the area.


title: Moscow

text: In addition to the districts, there are Territorial Units with Special Status. These usually include areas with small or no permanent populations. Such is the case with the All-Russia Exhibition Centre, the Botanical Garden, large parks, and industrial zones. In recent years, some territories have been merged with different districts. There are no ethnic-specific regions in Moscow, as in the Chinatowns that exist in some North American and East Asian cities. And although districts are not designated by income, as with most cities, those areas that are closer to the city center, metro stations or green zones are considered more prestigious.


title: Moscow

text: Moscow also hosts some of the government bodies of Moscow Oblast, although the city itself is not a part of the oblast.


title: Moscow

text: Moscow has one of the largest municipal economies in Europe and it accounts more than one-fifth of Russia's gross domestic product (GDP). , the GRP of Moscow reached almost ₽20 trillion(US$330 billion) and ₽1,567,645 per capita(~US$26,000). Gross Metropolitan Product(Moscow + Moscow Region) was ₽25 trillion or around US$400 billion.


title: Moscow

text: The average gross monthly wage in the city is ₽123,688 (US$2,000), which is around twice the national average of ₽66,572 (US$1,000), and one of the highest among the federal subjects of Russia.


title: Moscow

text: Moscow is home to the third-highest number of billionaires of any city in the world, and has the highest number of billionaires of any city in Europe. It is the financial center of Russia and home to the country's largest banks and many of its largest companies, such as oil giant Rosneft. Moscow accounts for 17% of retail sales in Russia and for 13% of all construction activity in the country. Since the 1998 Russian financial crisis, business sectors in Moscow have shown exponential rates of growth. Many new business centers and office buildings have been built in recent years, but Moscow still experiences shortages in office space. As a result, many former industrial and research facilities are being reconstructed to become suitable for office use. Overall, economic stability has improved in recent years; nonetheless, crime and corruption still hinder business development.


title: Moscow

text: Primary industries in Moscow include the chemical, metallurgy, food, textile, furniture, energy production, software development and machinery industries.


title: Moscow

text: The Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant is one of the world's leading producers of military and civil helicopters. Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center produces various space equipment, including modules for space stations Mir, Salyut and the ISS as well as Proton launch vehicles and military ICBMs. Sukhoi, Ilyushin, Mikoyan, Tupolev and Yakovlev aircraft design bureaus also situated in Moscow. NPO Energomash, producing the rocket engines for Russian and American space programs, as well as Lavochkin design bureau, which built fighter planes during WWII, but switched to space probes since the Space Race, are in nearby Khimki, an independent city in Moscow Oblast that have largely been enclosed by Moscow from its sides. Automobile plants ZiL and AZLK, as well as the Voitovich Rail Vehicle plant, are situated in Moscow and Metrovagonmash metro wagon plant is located just outside the city limits. The Poljot Moscow watch factory produces military, professional and sport watches well known in Russia and abroad. Yuri Gagarin in his trip into space used "Shturmanskie" produced by this factory.


title: Moscow

text: The Electrozavod factory was the first transformer factory in Russia. The Kristall distillery is the oldest distillery in Russia producing vodka types, including "Stolichnaya" while wines are produced at Moscow wine plants, including the Moscow Interrepublican Vinery. The Moscow Jewelry Factory and the Jewellerprom are producers of jewelry in Russia; Jewellerprom used to produce the exclusive Order of Victory, awarded to those aiding the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II.


title: Moscow

text: There are other industries located just outside the city of Moscow, as well as microelectronic industries in Zelenograd, including Ruselectronics companies.


title: Moscow

text: Gazprom, the largest extractor of natural gas in the world and the largest Russian company, has head offices also in Moscow, as well as other oil, gas, and electricity companies.


title: Moscow

text: Moscow hosts headquarters of the many of telecommunication and technology companies, including 1C, ABBYY, Beeline, Kaspersky Lab, Mail.Ru Group, MegaFon, MTS, Rambler&Co, Rostelecom, Yandex, and Yota.


title: Moscow

text: During Soviet times, apartments were lent to people by the government according to the square meters-per-person norm (some groups, including people's artists, heroes, and prominent scientists had bonuses according to their honors). Private ownership of apartments was limited until the 1990s when people were permitted to secure property rights to their inhabited places. Since the Soviet era, estate owners have had to pay the service charge for their residences, a fixed amount based on persons per living area.


title: Moscow

text: The price of real estate in Moscow continues to rise. Today, one could expect to pay $4,000 on average per square meter (11 sq ft) on the outskirts of the city or US$6,500–$8,000 per square meter in a prestigious district. The price sometimes may exceed US$40,000 per square meter in a flat. It costs about US$1,200 per month to rent a one-bedroom apartment and about US$1,000 per month for a studio in the center of Moscow.


title: Moscow

text: A typical one-bedroom apartment is about , a typical two-bedroom apartment is , and a typical three-bedroom apartment is . Many cannot move out of their apartments, especially if a family lives in a two-room apartment originally granted by the state during the Soviet era. Some city residents have attempted to cope with the cost of living by renting their apartments while staying in dachas (country houses) outside the city.


title: Moscow

text: In 2006, Mercer Human Resources Consulting named Moscow the world's most expensive city for expatriate employees, ahead of perennial winner Tokyo, due to the stable Russian ruble as well as increasing housing prices within the city. Moscow also ranked first in the 2007 edition and 2008 edition of the survey. However, Tokyo has overtaken Moscow as the most expensive city in the world, placing Moscow at third behind Osaka in second place.


title: Moscow

text: In 2014, according to "Forbes", Moscow was ranked the 9th most expensive city in the world. "Forbes" ranked Moscow the 2nd most expensive city the year prior.


title: Moscow

text: In 2019 the Economist Intelligence Unit's Worldwide Cost of Living survey put Moscow to 102nd place in the biannual ranking of 133 most expensive cities. ECA International's Cost of Living 2019 Survey ranked Moscow at number 120 among 482 locations worldwide.


title: Moscow

text: The heating of buildings in Moscow, like in other cities in Russia is done using central heating system. Before 2004, state unitary enterprises were responsible to produce and supply heat to the clients by the operation of heating stations and heating distribution system of Mosgorteplo, Mosteploenergo, and Teploremontnaladka which gave service to the heating substations in the north-eastern part of the city. Clients were divided between the various enterprises based on their geographical location. A major reform launched in 2004 consolidated the various companies under the umbrella of MIPC which became the municipal heat supplier. Its subsidiaries were the newly transformed Joint-stock companies. The city's main source of heating is the power station of Mosenergo which was reformed in 2005, when around ten subsidiaries were separated from it. One of the newly independent companies was the District Heating Network Company (MTK) (). In 2007 the Government of Moscow bought controlling stakes in the company.


title: Moscow

text: “Our city” is a geo-information portal created in 2011 under the mayor of Moscow Sergei Sobyanin with the aim of building a constructive dialogue between Moscow residents and the city's executive authorities. The portal is being developed by the State Public Institution “New Management Technologies” together with the Moscow Department of Information Technologies. In its 10 years of operation, more than 1.7 million users have joined the portal, and during this time it has become an effective tool for monitoring the state of urban infrastructure.


title: Moscow

text: There are 1,696 high schools in Moscow, as well as 91 colleges. Besides these, there are 222 institutions of higher education, including 60 state universities and the Lomonosov Moscow State University, which was founded in 1755. The main university building located in Vorobyovy Gory (Sparrow Hills) is tall and when completed, was the tallest building on the continent. The university has over 30,000 undergraduate and 7,000 postgraduate students, who have a choice of twenty-nine faculties and 450 departments for study. Additionally, approximately 10,000 high school students take courses at the university, while over two thousand researchers work. The Moscow State University library contains over nine million books, making it one of the largest libraries in all of Russia. Its acclaim throughout the international academic community has meant that over 11,000 international students have graduated from the university, with many coming to Moscow to become fluent in the Russian language.


title: Moscow

text: The I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University named after Ivan Sechenov or formerly known as Moscow Medical Academy (1stMSMU) is a medical university situated in Moscow, Russia. It was founded in 1785 as the faculty of the Moscow State University. It is a Russian Federal Agency for Health and Social Development. It is one of the largest medical universities in Russia and Europe. More than 9200 students are enrolled in 115 academic departments. It offers courses for post-graduate studies.


title: Moscow

text: The Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University (formerly known as Russian State Medical University) is a medical higher education institution in Moscow, Russia founded in 1906. It is fully accredited and recognized by Russia's Ministry of Education and Science and is currently under the authority of the Ministry of Health and Social Development. Named after Russian surgeon and pedagogue N.I. Pirogov (1810-1888), it is one of the largest medical institutions and the first university in Russia to allow women to acquire degrees.


title: Moscow

text: Moscow is one of the financial centers of the Russian Federation and CIS countries and is known for its business schools. Among them are the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation; Plekhanov Russian University of Economics; The State University of Management, and the National Research University - Higher School of Economics. They offer undergraduate degrees in management, finance, accounting, marketing, real estate, and economic theory, as well as Masters programs and MBAs. Most of them have branches in other regions of Russia and countries around the world.


title: Moscow

text: Bauman Moscow State Technical University, founded in 1830, is located in the center of Moscow and provides 18,000 undergraduate and 1,000 postgraduate students with an education in science and engineering, offering technical degrees.


title: Moscow

text: The Moscow Conservatory, founded in 1866, is a prominent music school in Russia whose graduates include Sergey Rachmaninoff, Alexander Scriabin, Aram Khachaturian, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Alfred Schnittke.


title: Moscow

text: The Gerasimov All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography, abbreviated as VGIK, is the world's oldest educational institution in Cinematography, founded by Vladimir Gardin in 1919.


title: Moscow

text: Sergei Eisenstein, Vsevolod Pudovkin, and Aleksey Batalov were among its most distinguished professors and Mikhail Vartanov, Sergei Parajanov, Andrei Tarkovsky, Nikita Mikhalkov, Eldar Ryazanov, Alexander Sokurov, Yuriy Norshteyn, Aleksandr Petrov, Vasily Shukshin, Konrad Wolf among graduates.


title: Moscow

text: Moscow State Institute of International Relations, founded in 1944, remains Russia's best- known school of international relations and diplomacy, with six schools focused on international relations. Approximately 4,500 students make up the university's student body and over 700,000 Russian and foreign-language books—of which 20,000 are considered rare—can be found in the library of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.


title: Moscow

text: Other institutions are the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, also known as Phystech, the Fyodorov Eye Microsurgery Complex, founded in 1988 by Russian eye surgeon Svyatoslav Fyodorov, the Moscow Aviation Institute, the Moscow Motorway Institute (State Technical University), and the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute. Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology has taught numerous Nobel Prize winners, including Pyotr Kapitsa, Nikolay Semyonov, Lev Landau and Alexander Prokhorov, while the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute is known for its research in nuclear physics. The highest Russian military school is the Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.


title: Moscow

text: Although Moscow has a number of famous Soviet-era higher educational institutions, most of which are more oriented towards engineering or the fundamental sciences, in recent years Moscow has seen a growth in the number of commercial and private institutions that offer classes in business and management. Many state institutions have expanded their education scope and introduced new courses or departments. Institutions in Moscow, as well as the rest of post-Soviet Russia, have begun to offer new international certificates and postgraduate degrees, including the Master of Business Administration. Student exchange programs with numerous countries, specially with the rest of Europe, have also become widespread in Moscow's universities, while schools within the Russian capital also offer seminars, lectures, and courses for corporate employees and businessmen.


title: Moscow

text: Moscow is one of the largest science centers in Russia. The headquarters of the Russian Academy of Sciences are located in Moscow as well as research and applied science institutions. The Kurchatov Institute, Russia's leading research and development institution in the fields of nuclear energy, where the first nuclear reactor in Europe was built, the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Kapitza Institute for Physical Problems and Steklov Institute of Mathematics are all situated in Moscow.


title: Moscow

text: There are 452 libraries in the city, including 168 for children. The Russian State Library, founded in 1862, is the national library of Russia. The library is home to over of shelves and 42 million items, including over 17 million books and serial volumes, 13 million journals, 350,000 music scores and sound records, and 150,000 maps, making it the largest library in Russia and one of the largest in the world. Items in 247 languages account for 29% of the collection.


title: Moscow

text: The State Public Historical Library, founded in 1863, is the largest library specialising in Russian history. Its collection contains four million items in 112 languages (including 47 languages of the former USSR), mostly on Russian and world history, heraldry, numismatics, and the history of science.


title: Moscow

text: In regard to primary and secondary education, in 2011, Clifford J. Levy of "The New York Times" wrote, "Moscow has some strong public schools, but the system as a whole is dispiriting, in part because it is being corroded by the corruption that is a post-Soviet scourge. Parents often pay bribes to get their children admitted to better public schools. There are additional payoffs for good grades."


title: Moscow

text: The Moscow Metro system is famous for its art, murals, mosaics, and ornate chandeliers. It started operation in 1935 and immediately became the centrepiece of the transportation system. More than that it was a Stalinist device to awe and reward the populace, and give them an appreciation of Soviet realist art. It became the prototype for future Soviet large-scale technologies. Lazar Kaganovich was in charge; he designed the subway so that citizens would absorb the values and ethos of Stalinist civilisation as they rode. The artwork of the 13 original stations became nationally and internationally famous. For example, the Sverdlov Square subway station featured porcelain bas-reliefs depicting the daily life of the Soviet peoples, and the bas-reliefs at the Dynamo Stadium sports complex glorified sports and the physical prowess of the powerful new "Homo Sovieticus" (Soviet man).


title: Moscow

text: The metro was touted as the symbol of the new social order—a sort of Communist cathedral of engineering modernity. Soviet workers did the labour and the artwork, but the main engineering designs, routes, and construction plans were handled by specialists recruited from the London Underground. The Britons called for tunneling instead of the "cut-and-cover" technique, the use of escalators instead of lifts, and designed the routes and the rolling stock. The paranoia of Stalin and the NKVD was evident when the secret police arrested numerous British engineers for espionage—that is for gaining an in-depth knowledge of the city's physical layout. Engineers for the Metropolitan Vickers Electrical Company were given a show trial and deported in 1933, ending the role of British business in the USSR.


title: Moscow

text: Today, the Moscow Metro comprises twelve lines, mostly underground with a total of 203 stations. The Metro is one of the deepest subway systems in the world; for instance, the Park Pobedy station, completed in 2003, at underground, has the longest escalators in Europe. The Moscow Metro is the busiest metro system in Europe, as well as one of the world's busiest metro systems, serving about ten million passengers daily (300,000,000 people every month). Facing serious transportation problems, Moscow has plans for expanding its Metro. In 2016, the authorities launched a new circle metro railway that contributed to solving transportation issues, namely daily congestion at Koltsevaya Line.


title: Moscow

text: Due to the treatment of Metro stations as possible canvas for art, characterized by the fact that workers of Moscow would get to see them every day, many Stalin-era metro stations were built in different "custom" designs (where each station's design would be, initially, a massive installation on a certain theme. For example, Elektrozavodskaya station was themed solely after nearby lightbulb factory and ceramic ribbed lightbulb sockets); the tradition of "Grand Designs" and, basically, decorating metro stations as single-themed installations, was restored in late 1979.


title: Moscow

text: More recently, Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin has introduced comforts ranging from WiFi and USB ports and Apple Pay — while opening new stations at a breakneck pace. Moscow's metro is one of the world's busiest, handling 2.6 billion passengers in 2019.


title: Moscow

text: In the Russian capital, there are over 21.5 thousand Wi-Fi access points, in student dormitories, in parks, cultural and sports institutions, and within the Garden Ring and the Third Transport Ring. From September 2020 to August 2021, 1,700 new access points to urban Wi-Fi were launched in Moscow. The structure of the Wi-Fi network allows citizens to use the Internet without re-authorization.


title: Moscow

text: The Moscow Metro operates a short monorail line (line 13). The line connects Timiryazevskaya metro station and Ulitsa Sergeya Eisensteina, passing close to VDNH (and Line 6 Metro station "V.D.N.Kh."). The line opened in 2004. It accepts overgound interchanges, no additional fare is needed if a ride was spent at Moscow Metro within previous 90 minutes.


title: Moscow

text: As Metro stations outside the city center are far apart in comparison to other cities, up to , a bus network radiates from each station to the surrounding residential zones. Moscow has a bus terminal for long-range and intercity passenger buses (Central Bus Terminal) with a daily turnover of about 25 thousand passengers serving about 40% of long-range bus routes in Moscow.


title: Moscow

text: Every major street in the city is served by at least one bus route. Many of these routes are doubled by a trolleybus route and have trolley wires over them.


title: Moscow

text: With the total line length of almost of a single wire, 8 depots, 104 routes, and 1740 vehicles, the Moscow trolleybus system was the largest in the world. But municipal authority, headed by Sergey Sobyanin, began to destroy the trolleybus system in Moscow in 2014 due the planned replacement of trolleybuses by electric buses. In 2018 Moscow trolleybus system has only 4 depots and dozens of kilometers of unused wires. Almost all trolleybus wires inside Garden Ring (Sadovoe Koltso) were cut in 2016–2017 due to the reconstruction of central streets ("Moya Ulitsa"). Opened on November 15, 1933, it is also the world's 6th oldest operating trolleybus system.


title: Moscow

text: In 2018 the vehicle companies Kamaz and GAZ have won the Mosgortrans tender for delivering 200 electric buses and 62 ultra-fast charging stations to the city transport system. The manufacturers will be responsible for the quality and reliable operation of the buses and charging stations for the next 15 years. The city will be procuring only electric buses as of 2021, replacing the diesel bus fleet gradually. According to expectations, Moscow will become the leader amongst the European cities in terms of electric and gas fuel share in public transport by 2019.


title: Moscow

text: All bus stations and terminals of Moscow are now connected to free Wi-Fi. One may use it in international bus stations Salaryevo, South Gate and North Gate, and in bus terminals Varshavskaya and Orekhovo. As much as 48 hot spots were installed there.


title: Moscow

text: On November 26, 2018, the mayor of Moscow Sergey Sobyanin took part in the ceremony to open the cable car above the Moskva River. The cable car will connect the Luzhniki sports complex with Sparrow Hills and Kosygin Street.


title: Moscow

text: The journey from the well-known viewpoint on Vorobyovy Gory to Luzhniki Stadium will last for five minutes instead of 20 minutes that one would have to spend on the same journey by car. The cable car will work every day from 11 a.m. till 11 p.m.


title: Moscow

text: The cable car is long. It was built to transport 1,600 passengers per hour in all weathers. There are 35 closed capsules designed by Porsche Design Studio to transport passengers. The booths are equipped with media screens, LED lights, hooks for bikes, skis, and snowboards. Passengers will also be able to use audio guides in English, German, Chinese and Russian.


title: Moscow

text: Moscow has an extensive tram system, which first opened in 1899. The newest line was built in 1984. Its daily usage by Muscovites is low, making up for approximately 5% of trips because many vital connections in the network have been withdrawn. Trams still remain important in some districts as feeders to Metro stations. The trams also provide important cross-links between metro lines, for example between Universitet station of Sokolnicheskaya Line (#1 red line) and Profsoyuznaya station of Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya Line (#6 orange line) or between Voykovskaya and Strogino. Some routes used to connect downtown with sleep districts, like route 3.


title: Moscow

text: In addition, tram advocates have suggested that the new rapid transit services (metro to City, Butovo light metro, Monorail) would be more effective as at-grade tram lines and that the problems with trams are only due to poor management and operation, not the technical properties of trams. New tram models have been developed for the Moscow network despite the lack of expansion.


title: Moscow

text: Commercial taxi services and route taxis are in widespread use. In the mid-2010s, service platforms such as Yandex.Taxi, Uber and Gett displaced many private drivers and small service providers and were in 2015 servicing more than 50% of all taxi orders in Moscow.


title: Moscow

text: Russian tech firm Yandex is testing self-driving taxis in Moscow. Yandex's fleet of around 170 driverless cars has travelled more than 14 million kilometres. Robotaxis will available through the company's Yandex.Go application in Yasenevo district.


title: Moscow

text: The terminals are located close to the city center, along with the metro ringline 5 or close to it, and connect to a metro line to the centre of town. Each station handles trains from different parts of Europe and Asia. There are many smaller railway stations in Moscow. As train tickets are cheap, they are the preferred mode of travel for Russians, especially when departing to Saint Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city. Moscow is the western terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railway, which traverses nearly of Russian territory to Vladivostok on the Pacific coast.


title: Moscow

text: Suburbs and satellite cities are connected by commuter elektrichka (electric rail) network. Elektrichkas depart from each of these terminals to the nearby (up to ) large railway stations.


title: Moscow

text: During the 2010s, the Little Ring of the Moscow Railway was converted to be used for frequent passenger service; it is fully integrated with Moscow Metro; the passenger service started on September 10, 2016. A connecting railway line on the North side of the town connects Belorussky terminal with other railway lines. This is used by some suburban trains.


title: Moscow

text: The Moskovskaya Okruzhnaya Zheleznaya Doroga formed a ring around the now-downtown Moscow since 1903, but only served as a non-electrified, fueled locomotive-only railway prior to reconstruction into MCC in 2010's.


title: Moscow

text: The Moscow Central Circle is a urban-metro railway orbital line that encircles historical Moscow. It was built alongside Little Ring of the Moscow Railway, taking some of its tracks into itself as well. M.C.C. was opened for passenger use on September 10, 2016. MOZD is integrated as "Line 14 of Moscow Metro", and, while using railway-sized trains, can be perceived as "S-train-design circle line".


title: Moscow

text: The line is operated by the Moscow Government owned company MKZD through the Moscow Metro, with the Federal Government owned Russian Railways selected as the operation subcontractor. The track infrastructure and most platforms are owned by Russian Railways, while MKZD owns most station buildings. However, in "S-bahn" way, Moscow unified tickets "Ediniiy" and "Troika" are accepted by MCC stations. There is one zero-fee interchange for any ticket used on Moscow Metro station less than 90 minutes before entering an MCC station (and vice versa: a passenger of MCC gets 1 free interchange to Moscow Metro within 90 minutes after entering MCC station)


title: Moscow

text: Another system, which forms "genuine "S-Bahn"" as in "suburbia-city-suburbia"-designed railway, is the Moscow Central Diameters, a pass-through railways system, created by constructing bypasses from "vokzals" final stations (e.g. by avoiding the central stations of already existing Moscow Railway, used for both intercity and urban-suburban travel before) and forming a train line across Moscow's centre.


title: Moscow

text: Out of 5 projected lines, the first 2 lines were completed and launched on 2019-11-21 (e.g. November 21, 2019).


title: Moscow

text: While using the same rails as "regular" suburban trains to vokzals, MCD trains (""Ivolga"" model) got distinguishing features (shape; red cabin, different windows, lesser amount of seats; big red "MЦΔ" train logo).


title: Moscow

text: There are over 2.6 million cars in the city daily. Recent years have seen growth in the number of cars, which have caused traffic jams and lack of parking space to become major problems.


title: Moscow

text: The Moscow Ring Road (MKAD), along with the Third Transport Ring and the canceled Fourth Transport Ring, is one of only three freeways that run within Moscow city limits. Several other roadway systems form concentric circles around the city.


title: Moscow

text: There are five primary commercial airports serving Moscow: Sheremetyevo (SVO), Domodedovo (DME), Vnukovo (VKO), Zhukovsky (ZIA), Ostafyevo (OSF).


title: Moscow

text: Sheremetyevo International Airport is the most globally connected, handling 60% of all international flights. It is also a home to all SkyTeam members, and the main hub for Aeroflot (itself a member of SkyTeam). Domodedovo International Airport is the leading airport in Russia in terms of passenger throughput and is the primary gateway to long-haul domestic and CIS destinations and its international traffic rivals Sheremetyevo. It is a hub for S7 airlines, and most of OneWorld and Star Alliance members use Domodedovo as their international hub. Vnukovo International Airport handles flights of Turkish Airlines, Wizz Air and others. Ostafyevo International Airport caters primarily to business aviation.


title: Moscow

text: Moscow's airports vary in distances from the MKAD beltway: Domodedovo is the farthest at ; Vnukovo is ; Sheremetyevo is ; and Ostafievo, the nearest, is about from MKAD.


title: Moscow

text: There are a number of smaller airports close to Moscow (19 in Moscow Oblast) such as Myachkovo Airport, that are intended for private aircraft, helicopters and charters.


title: Moscow

text: Moscow has two passenger terminals, (South River Terminal and North River Terminal or Rechnoy vokzal), on the river and regular ship routes and cruises along the Moskva and Oka rivers, which are used mostly for entertainment. The North River Terminal, built in 1937, is the main hub for long-range river routes. There are three freight ports serving Moscow.


title: Moscow

text: Moscow has different vehicle sharing options that are sponsored by the local government. There are several car sharing companies which are in charge of providing cars to the population. To drive the automobiles, the user has to book them through the app of the owning company. In 2018 the mayor Sergey Sobyanin said Moscow's car sharing system has become the biggest in Europe in terms of vehicle fleet. Every day about 25,000 people use this service. In the end of the same year Moscow carsharing became the second in the world in therms of fleet with 16.5K available vehicles. Another sharing system is bike sharing ("Velobike") of a fleet formed by 3000 traditional and electrical bicycles. The "Delisamokat" is a new sharing service that provides electrical scooters. There are companies that provide different vehicles to the population in proximity to Moscow's big parks.


title: Moscow

text: In 1992, the Moscow government began planning a projected new part of central Moscow, the Moscow International Business Center, with the goal of creating a zone, the first in Russia, and in all of Eastern Europe, that will combine business activity, living space and entertainment. Situated in Presnensky District and located at the Third Ring, the Moscow City area is under intense development. The construction of the MIBC takes place on the Krasnopresnenskaya embankment. The whole project takes up to . The area is the only spot in downtown Moscow that can accommodate a project of this magnitude. Today, most of the buildings there are old factories and industrial complexes.


title: Moscow

text: The Federation Tower, completed in 2016, is the second-tallest building in Europe. It is planned to include a water park and other recreational facilities; business, office, entertainment, and residential buildings, a transport network and a new site for the Moscow government. The construction of four new metro stations in the territory has been completed, two of which have opened and two others are reserved for future metro lines crossing MIBC, some additional stations were planned.


title: Moscow

text: Three metro stations were initially planned for the Filyovskaya Line. The station Delovoi Tsentr opened in 2005 and was later renamed Vystavochnaya in 2009. The branch extended to the Mezhdunarodnaya station in 2006, and all work on the third station, Dorogomilovskaya (between Kiyevskaya and Delovoi Tsentr), has been postponed. There are plans to extend the branch as far as the Savyolovskaya station, on the Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya Line. Line 4 of Moscow Metro had the longest time intervals between train arrivals (approximately 8 minutes for Mezhdunarodnaya and Vystavochnaya branch of line 4) throughout the 2010s. However, Vystavochnaya has been expanded with Line 8A platforms (segment of future Line 11), and Mezhdunarodnaya has been upgraded with line 14 platform.


title: Moscow

text: The cellphone service provider MTS announced on March 5, 2021, that they would begin the country's first pilot 5G network in Moscow. 14 hotspots were positioned across the city's main tourist attractions, including Lubyanka Square near Red Square, the Moscow City financial district and the VDNKh exhibition center.


title: Moscow

text: Moscow is home to nearly all of Russia's nationwide television networks, radio stations, newspapers, and magazines.


title: Moscow

text: English-language media include "The Moscow Times" and "Moscow News", which are, respectively, the largest and oldest English-language weekly newspapers in all of Russia. "Kommersant", "Vedomosti" and "Novaya Gazeta" are Russian-language media headquartered in Moscow. "Kommersant" and "Vedomosti" are among the country's leading and oldest Russian-language business newspapers.


title: Moscow

text: Other media in Moscow include the "Echo of Moscow", the first Soviet and Russian private news radio and information agency, and NTV, one of the first privately owned Russian television stations. The total number of radio stations in Moscow in the FM band is near 50.


title: Richard Gere

text: Richard Tiffany Gere ( ; born August 31, 1949) is an American actor. He began in films in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" (1977) and a starring role in "Days of Heaven" (1978). He came to prominence with his role in the film "American Gigolo" (1980), which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol. He has starred in many films, including "An Officer and a Gentleman" (1982), "The Cotton Club" (1984), "Pretty Woman" (1990), "Sommersby" (1993), "Primal Fear" (1996), "Runaway Bride" (1999), "I'm Not There" (2007), "Arbitrage" (2012) and "" (2016). For portraying Billy Flynn in the musical "Chicago" (2002), he won a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award as part of the cast.


title: Richard Gere

text: Richard Tiffany Gere was born in Philadelphia on August 31, 1949, the eldest son and second child of housewife Doris Ann ( Tiffany; 19242016) and NMIC insurance agent Homer George Gere (born May 7, 1922). His father originally intended to become a minister. Gere was raised Methodist in Syracuse, New York. His paternal great-grandfather, George Lane Gere (1848–1932), changed the spelling of his surname from "Geer". One of his ancestors, also named George, was an Englishman who came from Heavitree and settled in the Connecticut Colony in 1638. Both of Gere's parents were "Mayflower" descendants; his ancestors include Pilgrims such as John Billington, William Brewster, Francis Eaton, Francis Cooke, Degory Priest, George Soule and Richard Warren.


title: Richard Gere

text: In 1967, he graduated from North Syracuse Central High School, where he excelled at gymnastics and music and played the trumpet. He attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst on a gymnastics scholarship, studying philosophy; after two years, he left and did not graduate.


title: Richard Gere

text: Gere first worked professionally at the Seattle Repertory Theatre and the Provincetown Playhouse on Cape Cod in 1969, where he starred in "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead". His first major acting role was in the original London stage version of "Grease", in 1973. He was one of the first notable Hollywood actors to play a homosexual character, starring as a gay Holocaust victim in the 1979 Broadway production of "Bent", for which he earned a Theatre World Award.


title: Richard Gere

text: Gere began appearing in Hollywood films in the mid-1970s. Originally cast in a starring role in "The Lords of Flatbush" (1974), he was replaced after fighting with his co-star Sylvester Stallone. He played a small but memorable part in "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" (1977) and starred in director Terrence Malick's well-reviewed drama "Days of Heaven" (1978). The crime drama "American Gigolo" (1980) significantly boosted his profile and the romantic drama "An Officer and a Gentleman" (1982) (co-starring Debra Winger) cemented Gere's ascent to stardom, grossing almost $130 million and winning two Academy Awards out of six nominations; Gere himself received his first Golden Globe Award nomination. For the remainder of the 1980s, Gere appeared in films of varying critical and commercial reception. His career rebounded with the releases of "Internal Affairs" (1990) and "Pretty Woman" (1990), the latter of which earned him his second Golden Globe Award nomination. The 1990s saw Gere star in successful films including "Sommersby" (1993) (opposite Jodie Foster), "Primal Fear" (1996) and "Runaway Bride" (1999) (which reunited him with his "Pretty Woman" co-star Julia Roberts). He also took a leading role in the action thriller "The Jackal" (1997), playing former IRA militant Declan Mulqueen; Gere affected an Irish accent for the role.


title: Richard Gere

text: Gere was named "People" magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1999. Not long thereafter, all in the same year, he appeared in the hit films "The Mothman Prophecies" (2002), "Unfaithful" (2002) and the Academy Award-winning musical film adaptation "Chicago" (2002), for which he won his first Golden Globe Award. Gere's ballroom dancing drama "Shall We Dance?" (2004) was also a solid performer that grossed $170 million worldwide. His next film, the book-to-screen adaptation "Bee Season" (2005), was a commercial failure. Gere went on to co-star with Jesse Eisenberg and Terrence Howard in "The Hunting Party" (2007), a thriller in which he played a journalist in Bosnia. He next appeared with Christian Bale, Heath Ledger and Cate Blanchett in Todd Haynes' semi-biographical film about Bob Dylan, "I'm Not There" (2007); Gere was one of six actors to portray a variation of Dylan. He co-starred with Diane Lane in the romantic drama "Nights in Rodanthe" (2008). The film was widely panned by critics (making #74 on "The Times" Worst Films of 2008 list), but grossed over $84 million worldwide. The film is his most recent to have been produced entirely by a major film studio.


title: Richard Gere

text: Gere has expressed a belief that his politics regarding China, an important financial resource for major Hollywood studios, have made him unwelcome within Hollywood. He embraced his apparent exile from Hollywood and instead appeared in independent films that garnered some of the best reviews of his career. He was notably singled out for portraying businessman Robert Miller in "Arbitrage" (2012), earning his fourth Golden Globe Award nomination. Among many positive reviews, Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" cited Gere's performance as "too good to ignore" and "an implosive tour de force". Lou Lumenick of the "New York Post" further wrote that he "gives the best performance of his career". Also in 2012, he received the Golden Starfish Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Hamptons International Film Festival and the Career Achievement Award from the Hollywood Film Awards. He had earlier received an award from the 34th Cairo International Film Festival in December 2010.


title: Richard Gere

text: Gere made a notable departure from his traditional screen persona with Joseph Cedar's political drama "" (2016). The film saw him portray Norman Oppenheimer, a small-time Jewish fixer. Gere himself described the character as an embodiment of the "sides of us we know are annoying and needy". His portrayal of Oppenheimer was called "consistently, completely fascinating" by RogerEbert.com and was singled out as a worthy Academy Award contender by "Variety".


title: Richard Gere

text: Gere is an accomplished musician, composing and performing the "Pretty Woman" piano theme and a guitar solo in "Runaway Bride". He learned tap dance for his role as lawyer Billy Flynn in "Chicago", and karate for "An Officer and a Gentleman".


title: Richard Gere

text: Multiple film critics and media outlets have cited Gere as one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination.


title: Richard Gere

text: Gere regularly visits Dharamshala, the headquarters of the Tibetan government-in-exile. He is an advocate for human rights in Tibet and is a co-founder of the Tibet House US, creator of the Gere Foundation, and Chairman of the Board of Directors for the International Campaign for Tibet. Because he supports the Tibetan Independence Movement, he is permanently banned from entering China.


title: Richard Gere

text: In 1993, Gere was banned from being an Academy Award presenter after he denounced the Chinese government while announcing the nominees.


title: Richard Gere

text: In September 2007, Gere called for the boycott of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games to put pressure on China to make Tibet independent. He starred in a Free Tibet-themed Lancia commercial featuring the Lancia Delta. On June 27, 2011, he meditated in Borobudur Temple in Indonesia. He actively supports Survival International, an organization dedicated to protecting the rights and lands of tribal peoples throughout the world.


title: Richard Gere

text: Gere campaigns for ecological causes and AIDS awareness. He currently serves on the board of directors for Healing the Divide, an organization that supports global initiatives to promote peace, justice and understanding. He helped to establish the AIDS Care Home, a residential facility in India for women and children with AIDS, and also supports campaigns for AIDS awareness and education in that country. In 1999, he created the Gere Foundation India Trust to support a variety of humanitarian programs in India.


title: Richard Gere

text: On April 15, 2007, Gere appeared at an AIDS awareness rally in Jaipur. During a live news conference to promote condom use among truck drivers, he embraced Bollywood superstar Shilpa Shetty, dipped her, and kissed her several times on the cheek. As a result of that gesture, a local court ordered the arrest of Gere and Shetty, finding them in violation of public obscenity laws. Gere has said the controversy was "manufactured by a small hard-line political party". About a month later, a two-judge bench headed by the Chief Justice of India, K. G. Balakrishnan, described the case as "frivolous" and believed that such complaints against celebrities were filed for "cheap publicity" and have brought a bad name to the country. They ruled that Gere would remain free to enter the country.


title: Richard Gere

text: Gere contributed some of his writing for the book "We Are One: A Celebration of Tribal Peoples", released in October 2009. He discussed the persecution and loss of land of the Jummas as an example of a tragic story that repeats itself in different continents of the world, calling attention to the crime against their peaceful culture and how it reflects on humankind's own relationship with nature and capacity to survive. The royalties from the book's sale go to the indigenous rights organization Survival International.


title: Richard Gere

text: In 2010, Gere stated that the war in Iraq was not supported by the American people and that the Bush administration had "bullied" Americans into the decision. He called George W. Bush a "very poor president". In a press conference held on the sidelines of the 34th Cairo International Film Festival, he said, "I'm very sorry about what the U.S. has done in Iraq. This war has been a tragedy for everyone. I hope that the people of Iraq can rebuild their country."


title: Richard Gere

text: In 2017, Gere criticized Benjamin Netanyahu's policies on the Palestinians and Israel's expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank, stating, "Settlements are such an absurd provocation and, certainly in the international sense, completely illegal—and they are certainly not part of the program of someone who wants a genuine peace process."


title: Richard Gere

text: Gere had on-again/off-again relationships with actress Penelope Milford from 1971 to 1978, and painter Sylvia Martins from 1978 to 1986. During those years, he was also sporadically linked with Tuesday Weld, Carole Mallory, Dawn Steel, Loree Rodkin, Diane von Fürstenberg, Barbara Carrera, and Barbra Streisand. He was accused of having affairs with Priscilla Presley and Kim Basinger in tell-all books written by Presley's ex-boyfriend Michael Edwards and Basinger's ex-husband Ron Snyder. He has also reportedly dated model Laura Bailey, Tina Chow, Dalila Di Lazzaro, and Padma Lakshmi. He was married to model Cindy Crawford from 1991 to 1995.


title: Richard Gere

text: In November 2002, Gere married model and actress Carey Lowell. They have a son, Homer James Jigme Gere, who was born in February 2000 and is named for his grandfathers as well as the Tibetan name "Jigme". In September 2013, the two separated after 11 years of marriage. They spent three years in highly contested divorce proceedings in New York County Supreme Court. The case was settled in October 2016. In early April 2018, Gere married Spanish activist Alejandra Silva. In August 2018, they announced that they were expecting their first child. Their son, Alexander, was born in February 2019. In April 2020, the birth of their second son was reported.


title: Richard Gere

text: Gere's interest in Buddhism began when he was in his 20s. He first studied Zen Buddhism under Kyozan Joshu Sasaki. After studying Zen for five or six years, he and Brazilian painter Sylvia Martins traveled in 1978 to Nepal, where he met many Tibetan monks and lamas. He then met the 14th Dalai Lama in India and became a practicing Tibetan Buddhist (specifically of the Gelugpa school) and an active supporter of the Dalai Lama.


title: Richard Gere

text: Despite not being vegetarian, Gere has often been erroneously included on lists of famous vegetarians.


title: Richard Gere

text: On May 17, 2012, Albanian President, Bamir Topi awarded the "Medal of Gratitude" to Gere with the citation: "With gratitude and honor outstanding personality of the world art, great humanist and activist for the protection of human rights, which unmasked and the American public made known, and further, inhuman crimes, ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, in 1999, the Serbian military machine against the Albanian civilian population living in its land." On February 16, 2012, the George Eastman Museum honored Gere with the George Eastman Award for distinguished contribution to the art of film.


title: Jimmy Savile

text: Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile (; 31 October 1926 – 29 October 2011) was an English DJ, television and radio personality who hosted BBC shows including "Top of the Pops" and "Jim'll Fix It". During his lifetime, he was well known in the United Kingdom for his eccentric image and his charitable work. After his death, hundreds of allegations of sexual abuse made against him were investigated, leading the police to conclude that he had been a predatory sex offender and possibly one of Britain's most prolific. There had been allegations during his lifetime, but they were dismissed and accusers ignored or disbelieved. Savile took legal action against some accusers.


title: Jimmy Savile

text: As a teenager during the Second World War, Savile worked in coal mines as a Bevin Boy and reportedly sustained spinal injuries. He began a career playing records in, and later managing, dance halls, and was said to have been the first disc jockey to use twin turntables to keep music in constant play. In his 20s, he was a professional wrestler. His media career started as a disc jockey at Radio Luxembourg in 1958 and on Tyne Tees Television in 1960, and he developed a reputation for eccentricity and flamboyance. A significant part of his career and public life involved working with children and young people, including visiting schools and hospital wards. At the BBC, he presented the first edition of "Top of the Pops" in 1964 and broadcast on Radio 1 from 1968. From 1975 until 1994, he presented "Jim'll Fix It", an early Saturday evening television programme which arranged for the wishes of viewers, mainly children, to come true. During his lifetime, he was known for fund-raising and supporting charities and hospitals, in particular Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury, Leeds General Infirmary and Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire. In 2009, he was described by "The Guardian" as a "prodigious philanthropist" and was honoured for his charity work. He was awarded the OBE in 1971 and was knighted in 1990. In 2006, he introduced the last edition of "Top of the Pops". Savile died in 2011. He was praised in obituaries for his personal qualities and his work raising an estimated £40 million for charities.


title: Jimmy Savile

text: In October 2012, almost a year after his death, an ITV documentary examined claims of sexual abuse by Savile. This led to extensive media coverage and a substantial and rapidly growing body of witness statements and sexual abuse claims, including accusations against public bodies for covering up or failure of duty. Scotland Yard launched a criminal investigation into allegations of child sex abuse by Savile spanning six decades, describing him as a "predatory sex offender", and later stated that they were pursuing more than 400 lines of inquiry based on the testimony of 300 potential victims via 14 police forces across the UK. By late October 2012, the scandal had resulted in inquiries or reviews at the BBC, within the National Health Service, the Crown Prosecution Service, and the Department of Health. In June 2014, investigations into Savile's activities at 28 NHS hospitals, including Leeds General Infirmary and Broadmoor psychiatric hospital, concluded that he had sexually assaulted staff and patients aged between 5 and 75 over several decades. Following the sexual abuse scandal, some of his honours were posthumously revoked, and episodes of "Top of the Pops" presented by Savile have not been repeated.


title: Jimmy Savile

text: Savile, born at Consort Terrace, in the Burley area of Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, was the youngest of seven children (his elder siblings were Mary, Marjory, Vincent, John, Joan, and Christina) in a Roman Catholic family. His parents were Vincent Joseph Marie Savile (1886–1953), a bookmaker's clerk and insurance agent, and his wife, Agnes Monica Kelly (1886–1972). His paternal grandmother was Scottish.


title: Jimmy Savile

text: Savile grew up during the Great Depression, and later claimed, "I was forged in the crucible of want." He described his father as "scrupulously honest but scrupulously broke."


title: Jimmy Savile

text: Savile's mother believed he owed his life to the intercession of Margaret Sinclair, a Scottish nun, after he recovered quickly from illness, possibly pneumonia, at the age of two when his mother prayed at Leeds Cathedral after picking up a pamphlet about Sinclair. Savile went to St Anne's Roman Catholic School in Leeds. After leaving school at the age of 14 he worked in an office. At the age of 18 during the Second World War he was conscripted to work as a Bevin Boy and worked in coal mines, where he reportedly suffered spinal injuries from a shot-firer's explosion, and he spent a long period recuperating, wearing a steel corset and for three years walking with the aid of sticks. Following his colliery work, Savile became a scrap metal dealer. Savile started playing records in dance halls in the early 1940s, and claimed to be the first DJ. According to his autobiography, he was the first to use two turntables and a microphone at the Grand Records Ball at the Guardbridge Hotel in 1947, although his claim to have been the first is untrue; twin turntables were illustrated in the "BBC Handbook" in 1929 and advertised for sale in "Gramophone" magazine in 1931.


title: Jimmy Savile

text: He became a semi-professional sportsman, competing in the 1951 Tour of Britain cycle race and working as a professional wrestler. He said:


title: Jimmy Savile

text: Savile lived in Salford from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, the later period with Ray Teret, who became his support DJ, assistant and chauffeur. Savile managed the Plaza Ballroom on Oxford Street, in Manchester city centre, in the mid-1950s. When he lived in Great Clowes Street in Higher Broughton, Salford, he was often seen sitting on his front door steps. He managed the Mecca Locarno ballroom in Leeds in the late 1950s and early 1960s as well as the Mecca-owned Palais dance hall in Ilford, Essex, between 1955 and 1956. His Monday evening records-only dance sessions (admission one shilling) were popular with local teens.


title: Jimmy Savile

text: Savile's radio career began as a DJ at Radio Luxembourg from 1958 to 1968. By 1968 he presented six programmes a week, and his Saturday show reached six million listeners. In terms of recognition, he was one of the leading DJs in Britain by the early 1960s.


title: Jimmy Savile

text: In 1968, he joined Radio 1, where he presented "Savile's Travels", a weekly programme broadcast on Sundays in which he travelled around the UK talking to members of the public. From 1969 to 1973 he fronted "Speakeasy", a discussion programme for teenagers. On Radio 1 he presented the Sunday lunchtime show "Jimmy Savile's Old Record Club", playing chart Top 10s from years gone by. It was the first show to feature old charts and Savile used a "points system" in an imaginary quiz with the audience to guess the names of the song and artist. It began in 1973 as "The Double Top Ten Show", and ended in 1987 as "The Triple Top Ten Show" when he left Radio 1 after 19 years. He presented "The Vintage Chart Show", playing top tens from 1957 to 1987, on the BBC World Service from March 1987 until October 1989.


title: Jimmy Savile

text: From March 1989 to August 1997, he broadcast on various stations around the UK (mostly taking the Gold format, such as the West Midlands' Xtra AM and the Classic Gold network in Yorkshire) where he revived his Radio 1 shows. In 1994, satirist Chris Morris gave a fake obituary on BBC Radio 1, saying that Savile had collapsed and died, which allegedly drew threats of legal action from Savile and forced an apology from Morris. On 25 December 2005, and 1 January 2007, he presented shows on the Real Radio network. The Christmas 2005 show counted down the festive Top 10s of 10, 20 and 30 years previously, while the New Year 2007 show (also taken by Century Radio following its acquisition by GMG) featured Savile recounting anecdotes from his past and playing associated records, mostly from the 1960s and some from the 1970s.


title: Jimmy Savile

text: Savile's first television role was as a presenter of Tyne Tees Television's music programme "Young at Heart", which aired from May 1960. Although the show was broadcast in black and white, Savile dyed his hair a different colour every week. On New Year's Day 1964, he presented the first edition of the BBC music chart television programme "Top of the Pops" from Dickenson Road Studios, a television studio in a converted church in Rusholme, Manchester. On 30 July 2006, he co-hosted the final weekly edition, ending it with the words "It's number one, it's still "Top of the Pops"", before turning off the studio lights after the closing credits. When interviewed by the BBC on 20 November 2008 and asked about the revival of "Top of the Pops" for a Christmas comeback, he said he would welcome a "cameo role" in the programme.


title: Jimmy Savile

text: In the early 1960s, Savile co-hosted (with Pete Murray) the televised "New Musical Express" Poll Winners' Concert, held annually at the Empire Pool in Wembley, with acts such as the Beatles, Cliff Richard and the Shadows, Joe Brown and the Bruvvers, the Who, and many others. On 31 December 1969, he hosted the BBC/ZDF co-production "Pop Go the Sixties", shown across Western Europe, celebrating the hits of the decade.


title: Jimmy Savile

text: Savile presented a series of public information films promoting road safety, notably "Clunk Click Every Trip", which promoted the use of seatbelts, the clunk representing the sound of the door and the click the sound of the seatbelt fastening. It led to Savile's Saturday-night chat/variety show from 1973 on BBC1 entitled "Clunk, Click", which in 1974 featured the UK heats of the "Eurovision Song Contest" featuring Olivia Newton-John. After two series, "Clunk, Click" was replaced by "Jim'll Fix It", which he presented from 1975 to 1994. Savile won an award from Mary Whitehouse's National Viewers' and Listeners' Association in 1977 for his "wholesome family entertainment". He fronted a long-running series of advertisements in the early 1980s for British Rail's InterCity 125, in which he declared "This is the age of the train". Savile was twice the subject of the Thames Television series "This Is Your Life" in January 1970 with Eamonn Andrews and again in December 1990 with Michael Aspel.


title: Jimmy Savile

text: In an interview by Anthony Clare for the radio series "In the Psychiatrist's Chair" in 1991, Savile appeared to be "a man without feelings". "There is something chilling about this 20th-century 'saint'", Clare concluded in 1992 in his introduction to the published transcript of this interview. Andrew Neil interviewed him for the TV series "Is This Your Life?" in 1995 where Savile "used a banana to avoid discussing his personal life". In 1999, he appeared as a panellist on "Have I Got News for You".


title: Jimmy Savile

text: In April 2000, he was the subject of a documentary by Louis Theroux, in the "When Louis Met..." series, in which Theroux accompanied British celebrities going about their daily business and interviewed them about their lives and experiences. In the documentary, Savile confided that he used to beat people up and lock them in a basement during his career as a nightclub manager. When Theroux challenged Savile about rumours of paedophilia over a decade before, Savile said: "We live in a very funny world. And it's easier for me, as a single man, to say 'I don't like children', because that puts a lot of salacious tabloid people off the hunt."


title: Jimmy Savile

text: Savile visited the "Celebrity Big Brother" house on 14 and 15 January 2006 (in series 4) and "fixed it" for some housemates to have their wishes granted; Pete Burns received a message from his boyfriend, Michael, and Lynn, his ex-wife, while Dennis Rodman traded Savile's offering for a supply of cigarettes for the other housemates. In 2007, Savile returned to television with "Jim'll Fix It Strikes Again" showing some of the most popular fix-its, recreating them with the same people, and making new dreams come true.


title: Jimmy Savile

text: Savile is estimated to have raised £40 million for charity. One cause for which he raised money was Stoke Mandeville Hospital, where he volunteered for many years as a porter. He raised money for the Spinal Unit, NSIC (National Spinal Injuries Centre), and St Francis Ward – a ward for children and teens with spinal cord injuries. Savile also volunteered at Leeds General Infirmary and Broadmoor Hospital. In August 1988, he was appointed by junior health minister Edwina Currie chair of an interim task force overseeing the management of Broadmoor Hospital, after its board members had been suspended. Savile had his own rooms at both Stoke Mandeville and Broadmoor. In 1989, Savile started legal proceedings against News Group Newspapers after the "News of the World" published an article, in January 1988, suggesting he had been in a position to secure the release of patients from Broadmoor who were considered "dangerous". Savile won on 11 July 1989; News Group paid his legal costs, and he received an apology from editors Kelvin MacKenzie and Patsy Chapman. In 2012, it was reported that Savile had sexually abused vulnerable patients at the hospitals.


title: Jimmy Savile

text: From 1974 to 1988, Savile was the honorary president of Phab (Physically Handicapped in the Able Bodied community). He sponsored medical students performing undergraduate research in the Leeds University Research Enterprise scholarship scheme, donating more than £60,000 every year. In 2010, the scheme was given a commitment of £500,000 over the following five years. Following Savile's death in October 2011, it was confirmed that a bequest had been made to allow continued support for the programme.


title: Jimmy Savile

text: Savile was a participant in marathons (many for Phab, including its annual half marathon around Hyde Park, London). He also cycled from Land's End to John o' Groats in 10 days for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, and ran in the Scottish People's Marathon. It was reported that he completed the London Marathon at the age of 79; rumours that he was driven round in a lead vehicle as an "observer" were denied by marathon officials.


title: Jimmy Savile

text: Savile set up two charities, the Jimmy Savile Stoke Mandeville Hospital Trust in 1981, and the Leeds-based Jimmy Savile Charitable Trust in 1984. During the sexual abuse scandal in October 2012 the charities announced that they would distribute their funds, of £1.7 million and £3.7 million respectively, among other charities and then close down. He also raised money for several Jewish charities.


title: Jimmy Savile

text: During his lifetime and at the time of his death, Savile was regarded as "an eccentric adornment to British public life ... an ubiquitous and distinctive face on television", who "relished being in the public eye" and was "a shrewd promoter of his own image". He created a "bizarre yodel", and catchphrases which included "How's about that, then?", "Now then, now then", "Goodness gracious", "As it 'appens" and "Guys and gals". Savile was frequently spoofed for his dress sense, which usually featured a tracksuit or shellsuit and gold jewellery. A range of licensed fancy dress costumes was released with his consent in 2009. Savile was often pictured holding a cigar. He claimed to have started smoking cigars at the age of seven, saying "My dad gave me a drag on one at Christmas, thinking it would put me off them forever, but it had the opposite effect."


title: Jimmy Savile

text: Savile was a member of Mensa and the Institute of Advanced Motorists and drove a Rolls-Royce. He was made a life member of the British Gypsy Council in 1975, becoming the first "outsider" to be made a member. In 1984, Savile was accepted as a member of the Athenaeum, a gentlemen's club in London's Pall Mall, after being proposed by Cardinal Basil Hume. He was chieftain of the Lochaber Highland Games for many years, and owned a house in Glen Coe; his appearance on the final edition of "Top of the Pops" in 2006 was pre-recorded as it clashed with the games.


title: Jimmy Savile

text: Through his support of charities, Savile became a friend of Margaret Thatcher, who in 1981 described his work as "marvellous". It has been reported that Savile spent 11 consecutive New Year's Eves at Chequers with Thatcher and her family, although this is disputed by Thatcher's daughter, Carol, and by Lord Bell, a close friend of the Thatcher family, who said "people make up such rubbish". Letters released in December 2012 by the National Archives under the thirty-year rule confirm the "close friendship" between Savile and Thatcher. Some of the correspondence was heavily redacted before publication, using exemptions under the Freedom of Information Act.


title: Jimmy Savile

text: Savile met Prince Charles through mutual charity interests. His work with Stoke Mandeville Hospital also made Savile a suitable figure to whom the Prince could turn "for advice on navigating Britain's health authorities". Charles met Savile on several occasions. In 1999, Charles visited Savile's Glen Coe home for a private meal and reportedly sent him gifts on his 80th birthday and a note reading: "Nobody will ever know what you have done for this country, Jimmy. This is to go some way in thanking you for that." Savile was also in contact with other members of the royal household and received telegrams from Diana, Princess of Wales, and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, as well as a handwritten letter from Princess Alexandra's husband Sir Angus Ogilvy and a homemade card from Sarah, Duchess of York. Savile acted as an unofficial adviser to Prince Charles, who sought his advice on a number of occasions on how the royal family ought to interact with the public and media. In 1989, Savile hand-wrote an unofficial set of guidelines to Charles on how members of the royal family and staff may respond to disasters. Charles showed the dossier to his father, Prince Philip, who passed the contents on to Elizabeth II.


title: Jimmy Savile

text: A lifelong bachelor, Savile lived with his mother (whom he referred to as the "Duchess") and kept her bedroom and wardrobe exactly as it was when she died. Every year he had her clothes dry cleaned. Savile's personal relationships were rarely the subject of media report or comment in his lifetime. In his autobiography, he claimed he had had many sexual relations with women, and that "there have been trains and, with apologies to the hit parade, boats and planes (I am a member of the 40,000ft club) and bushes and fields, corridors, doorways, floors, chairs, slag heaps, desks and probably everything except the celebrated chandelier and ironing board".


title: Jimmy Savile

text: On 9 August 1997, Savile underwent a three-hour quadruple heart-bypass operation at Killingbeck Hospital in Killingbeck, Leeds, having known he needed the surgery for at least four years after attending regular check-ups. He arranged for a bench in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, to be dedicated to his memory, with a plaque saying "Jimmy Savile – but not just yet!"


title: Jimmy Savile

text: On 29 October 2011, Savile was found dead at his penthouse flat overlooking Roundhay Park in Leeds, two days before his 85th birthday. He had been in hospital with pneumonia, and his death was not suspicious.


title: Jimmy Savile

text: His closed satin gold coffin was displayed at the Queens Hotel in Leeds, with the last cigar he smoked and his two "This Is Your Life" books. Around 4,000 people visited to pay tribute. His funeral took place at Leeds Cathedral on 9 November 2011, and he was buried at Woodlands Cemetery in Scarborough. As specified in his will, his coffin was inclined at 45 degrees to fulfil his wish to "see the sea". The coffin was encased in concrete "as a security measure".


title: Jimmy Savile

text: An auction of Savile's possessions was conducted at the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds, on 30 July 2012, with the proceeds going to charity. His silver Rolls-Royce Corniche convertible was sold for £130,000 to an Internet bidder. The vehicle's number plate, JS 247, featured the original medium wave wavelength used by BBC Radio 1 (247 metres).


title: Jimmy Savile

text: Savile often came into contact with his victims through his creative projects for the BBC and his charitable work for the NHS. A significant part of his career and public life involved working with children and young people, including visiting schools and hospital wards. He spent 20 years from 1964 presenting "Top of the Pops", aimed at a teenage audience, and an overlapping 20 years presenting "Jim'll Fix It", in which he helped the wishes of viewers, mainly children, come true.