Using the “Informational City ” concept of Manuel Castells and its extension into the world-city literature, this paper examines contemporary strategies of urban management in Moscow. The focus is on the international communication trends that are transforming Moscow into an Informational City, manifested locally in the establishment of various types of business districts. On the basis of detailed data (local post offices zones) in Moscow, the location of diverse business facilities, their restriction to particular types of urban environments, their relation to the geography of government organization, and the location of the financial sphere and trade (especially in luxury items) are analyzed. Like other world cities, the transformation of Moscow from a Soviet to an Informational City has produced a polarized city, one that increasingly that fits the “citadel-ghetto ” model. While a concerted effort of the state, municipal authorities and private capital encourages the growth of business districts, the interests of the majority of Moscovites are ill served by the contemporary political structures and processes.
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Kolossov et al. (2002) studied this question.