Economy of Moscow

Moscow is the largest industrial center in Russia.

More than half of its highly skilled industrial workforce is employed in engineering and metalworking industries that produce cars, trucks, ball bearings, and machine tools.

The centuries-old textile industry is the city’s second largest employer.

In the early 1990s the largest sectors of employment for Moscow’s workforce were industry (24 percent), science and associated services (20 percent), construction (11 percent), and trade (10 percent).

Moscow has attracted an enormous amount of foreign investment in its retail, wholesale, and construction sectors since Russia made the transition to a market economy in the early 1990s.

State-run stores selling subsidized domestic goods to long lines of consumers have been largely replaced by joint-venture firms selling plentiful imported goods at market prices.

New Western-style office buildings and hotels are under construction, and numerous nightclubs have opened.

A huge new underground shopping complex complete with parking garage is located under Manezhnaya Square, near the Kremlin.

The city is also the center of Russia’s banking, insurance, and financial industries.

Moscow’s location on the Moscow River provides access to five seas—the Baltic, White, Black, and Caspian seas and the Sea of Azov—via tributaries and canals, most notably the Moscow Canal connecting to the Volga River.

This accessibility makes Moscow a gateway for goods entering and leaving Russia by ship and the primary port for goods being transferred from land-based to water-based forms of transportation.

Railroads provide the most common method of travel between Moscow and other cities.

Nine mainline railroad stations, located in Moscow’s central metropolitan area, serve as the main connection points for routes to and from other parts of Russia and other countries.

Moscow has an international airport called Sheremetyevo II and four additional airports that provide service within Russia and to other former Soviet republics.

Forms of transportation in Moscow include the Metro (subway), trolleys, trams, buses, taxis, and automobiles.

The first line of Moscow’s Metro was completed in 1935.

In the following years the subway system was expanded to serve most of the inner city.

Since the 1970s construction of new Metro lines to the city’s outskirts has often lagged behind residential development.

The Metro is known for its ornate stations, often decorated with marble, chandeliers, and statues.