State-led metropolisation in Russia

Russian urban planning and government are undergoing a metropolitan turn. The Russian central government is seeking to spatially rebalance the Russian economy by creating new economic centres and introducing metropolitan-level urban planning and government for selected core cities and adjacent municipalities. From the urban planning perspective, metropolisation aims to promote better coordination within functional urban areas. Using the current debates in urban planning and economic geography, this paper examines the origins, content, and economic implications of this state-led metropolisation. It concludes that although some material conditions for metropolisation are present, cities may not be able to fulfil the vision of new ‘economic engines’ because of deeply embedded structural problems in the Russian economy and the current weakness of metropolitan governments.