in many places in the soviet cities and in certain the cities which were very green which were which were full of life which were full of a kind of egalitarian publicness that actually is missing from those cities today well if you haven't been to moscow off of the soviet period but you worked a lot in moscow all fired today how what terms would you use to describe this city well i mean i suppose the main trend in moscow in the last two decades. certainly has been has been the increasing of inequalities in the city has been has been the sort of rapid rise in income inequality in the city and this sort of turning of the city center gradually into this into this space for for rich muscovites in the pushing of the of muscovites further and further out of the center of the city so moscow is becoming a much more stratified place than it was before and if anything that process is going to be is going to be is definitely going to be exacerbated by the by the by the so-called renovation project by the by the project of the destruction of the

host ophira mass housing well it's really striking to me that you would that's the first thing that comes to you it comes to your mind in describing moscow because. urban improvements i said do not believe it limited to the city center in fact over the last year or so they have moved to the suburbs i mean i live in the suburbs and all the four parks around my house have been renovated to be very active participation of local residents the major improvement in terms of the playgrounds and other public spaces what makes you believe that it's all about the reach muscovites well i mean the i was talking particular about the city center and the fact that it is becoming harder and harder for people to afford to live in the center especially if they want to live in their own or if they're young or if the elderly so simply in demographic times the center of moscow is becoming richer and richer and. the suburbs are becoming poorer and poorer which is not to say that the which is not to say that since you thirty's completely neglecting the. the

peripheries of the city there are many new parks that are opening without being remade. on this there's a sort of that he had the idea for cation of the suburbs of moscow and indeed of much of russia but there's also a lot of there's a sort of parallel processes that are not necessarily that are that are more complicated than us or pox are also being closed old parks are being closed old green spaces are being destroyed while new ones are being new ones are being opened i think it would be very difficult for the mosque a cd authorities to close any part do you have any concrete example in mind because i being a resident of moscow i cannot remember anything of late well i was i went for a jog a few months ago to. to what used to be the former park of the sixtieth anniversary of the observer revolution and the park has been has been the former park this former enormous kind of green space of green greenery and water in the center of moscow has been closed in the last few years and is now being turned into the into the so called island of dreams or the dream island city of paid for the puck so

this is one example of a vast green space being decimated being closed off being fenced off and being turned into a kind of into a kind of putin is disneyland and then. a similar thing happening is happening to potentially to incur that's kind of that's cahill's on the other side of moscow where the cadets cahill's a sort of huge kind of. lung is potentially going to be turned into a kind of ethno well into the sort of ethnographic scans and so it's a definitely there is a there is an emphasis on green space on an improvement in the municipality but it's not as simple as that there's a lot of there's a lot of parallel process is happening well my impression has been that as the city authorities saying trying to remodel the at the center of moscow they're also adding in a lot of trees a lot of rag remarry it's you the central streets where those trees haven't been for quite some time i mean i wonder if this skeptical. take on what is happening.

in the city with the main focus on how i make will it's becoming is really warranted because from my understanding and i take strolls in the city center quite regularly it's actually much more egalitarian than it was let's say you know five or ten years ago yeah i think you know i think that's also true i mean that's the only person that's happening in moscow that was just the first one i name because i think these things should be understood first of all i mean i work and it's the things i work on the aesthetics of the city about aesthetics should also be understood first of all in terms of their economic and their kind of political function but but certainly and from this point of view today it's true that the effects of the my street the street renovation program that's being carried out over the last half decade in moscow has also been that there has been as of democratizing function so on the streets like the streets where my street was sort of completed there's

a whole bunch of new affordable cafes and restaurants opened that's also true in parts of the most part it is even instead of where previously there were these kind of foreboding silos there's now this sort of supermarkets and there's and there's a more sort of democratic kind of slightly more got a tarion. a gala tarion streets emerging but these are these are streets for consumers first of middle class consumers that they're not streets from kind of from poorer muscovites from the suburbs of muster and they're certainly not good towards the vast migrant population which which exists in moscow but i mean even if you are just want to take a stroll i think nobody for beats people from any economic strata to get out there and take a walk anyway you mentioned statics and this change in appearance has become a running theme for a western journalist but they almost invariably file stories along the lines of yes becoming prettier but daunte lad the looks full you do. greeba dad that behind this

new facade the russian capital is still a harsh and welcoming and ultimately authoritarian place i mean i don't find must go on welcoming even even in the slightest and i never found unwelcoming and i've been going there since since the late nineties. i think there's definitely an element of i mean there is no doubt that the transformation of moscow and so far the city center and increasingly also the more per for a pot smoker is an incredible achievement it's one it's a very expensive achievement but it's certainly certainly led to sort of improvement and kind of sort of want to go has become at least in the thames a more and more sort of livable place to use this kind of jargon but that doesn't mean that's all there is to it i don't think that moscow is necessarily underneath some sort of bleak kind of or thirty tarion kind of nightmare but certainly these these persis is a more intense and muska than they are elsewhere they don't they don't this this

process of of the big improvement even though it is spread out to the regions is definitely concentrated in muska because any moscow can afford to spend so much money on making the second city center pretty and i mean ultimately the long term effects of this an improvement will take will take a long time to be measured because it's only just beginning so far the only things that we really have to go on. and this is for example k.b. stroke overall also the most community about if you when they when they when they when they want to sort of prove that this is the transformation of most care successful they point to things like the number of selfies that were taken on the god in ring say before off to the blood goes to before or after the well they also of course how many how many people visited moscow last year is they also are used to support the argument the the income that many of the act cafes or a local business is a getting from those improvements i think they're pretty conventional you know what i'm saying is just the. it's to say one of these things

a very early days there in terms of sort of the income that businesses have made along to clean streets that will can one that's the sort of thing that has made a measure of sort of a long time. uptick and the only other thing that we have to go on so far too is that both in both of the bigger actions that would have been muscular in two thousand and eighteen both the presidential elections and the mayor elections one third more people voted for both. putin as president and surrogates of the onion as mayor than they did in the last elections which was before this sort of this huge wave of blood goes through has to happen so so you know i'm sure that's not purely down to the. or what i'm saying is that so far we have relatively few statistics to go and we do have to you are considered the political implications of base a new wave of urban improvement i know that you said and want to interview that the russian authorities are using these type of beautification for political reasons to sort of strengthen their grip on power to placated voters to sort of fool them into

believing that life is improving isn't that what any authority in any cd is supposed to do to prolong that mandate by improving the environment and reach people leave yes or no i mean i don't think i used those words exactly i don't think i have a i don't i'm paraphrasing you but meaning anyone but. yes but you did either imply that they were a kind of many people a being the russians into believing that life is getting better when in fact it's kind of questionable i mean it is questionable whether life is getting better whether wages are really increasing you know or whether with access to health care is improving whether the sort of foundational character of an infrastructure medical facilities are better or not. is not necessarily direct links to what the streets look like the streets are definitely getting but nice a quick especially in the center of certain cities than the quality of medical care is improving. however that's not to say that this is a genuine it's. and that this is some sort of particularly russian thing and this

is it will particularly muska thing and this is another important point that what's happening in moscow at the moment is very much plugged into global trends is very much plugged into a new into a new kind of realisation. this is a capitalist economies that actually public space is important and public space can also generate profit so the current set of russian fashion for public space of an ism is totally part of a global process it perhaps just takes on a particular set of russian characteristics in the context of moscow so none of these things so it's in the you know the high line in new york is quite a similar thing to that idea pockets also this sort of gift from michael bloomberg in the case of new york to to a city which which is a public space but has also increased increased on value and has also pushed poor new yorkers out of the center of the city so so you know the things that i'm what i'm talking about poor people being pushed out into the city what i'm not i'm not

talking about some sort of particularly. pathology i'm rather talking about the fact that with the current sort of municipalities the current mayor of moscow is actually much better at plugging must go into global purchases and global kind of economic trends perhaps than the previous may was well atmosphere after we have to take a very short break now but he will be back in just a few moments statement. i'm

a little but i think it's ended up by one news we're body. did both lot on. one on one night he should have been there stuck. with them to i don't want or i can't doesn't mean yes i knew she needed that move to get out of yeah i am question whom he could feel that he had to keep. going i say he may have to move out of one of the one that he i want to go to before having a. negative place called camp sundown camp for people that can't live. in there like so vampire camp is like a safe house i guess they don't have to talk about what they go through with us because we understand her daughter katie was diagnosed with a very rare sun sensitive condition if i get sunburned i heal she does or she'll

patients when they have problems with the walk to talk to some of the brains that are actually shrinking inside their disco gets taken in the brain still small. the pain is indescribable it's feels like a really really bad chemical burn but it goes through your skin into your muscle all the way down to the bone and there's no relief. so we're just not sure this is going to stop. you know world of big partners. lofts and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to get the stories that made stream media refuses to tell more than we need to be smarter we need to stop slam. the door on the bag and shouting past

each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now for watching closely watching the hawks. welcome back to worlds apart made me call murawski anthropologist of architecture at university college london mr murawski there are many people here in russia who can nag these new wave of our been improvements to the protests of two thousand and eleven two thousand and twelve in moscow and other big russian cities when the urban middle class took to the streets to protest against the results of the

parliamentary elections as well as vladimir putin's intention to run for yet another term do you think in terms of political capital responding to those protests with increased infrastructure spending didn't pay it didn't pay off politically i mean i think. you know this is this is a point of view that you hear repeated a lot both in the u.k. or american media but also i've heard it repeated many times in moscow by by my sort of into lucky's is that what's happening is a direct response to that question and there are these kinds of things i think there may be some some some some truth to to to the fact that this was a kind of conscious response. better get it's not all that there is to it there was a moment when. the mayor was called had been removed and there was a sort of wave coming anyway and there was a global wave of kind of street improvement of public space improvement coming anyway so so i don't think that you can purely reduce that to two or. response to

the protests but in terms of political capital sure as i mentioned before. i don't think that in the streets improvement hurts not neither. the federal government's popularity nor the mass popularity and the results of recent elections testified to that perhaps one of the most notable things to have changed since two thousand and eleven is the system of government services particularly in moscow because. before people used to wait for hours sometimes they sometimes even months to get the necessary documentation to kind of change that driving license or to enroll their kids into schools nowadays it takes very sure that mound of time you can do it in one place and it is usually done by a very friendly reception is hall for your coffee while you're waiting knowing how these formerly communist country used to treat its subjects do you take that as a change of appearance or a change of philosophy. i suppose. what i mean i can't i'm not sure this is one of

the things i'm least qualified to talk about in detail because i'm not a russian citizen i lived in moscow for sixteen months doing my research but i and i saw these my documents places popping up all over town and people did talk about them as being as being a very convenient thing. and in general i suppose there is this sort of digitalisation in this kind of streamlining of bureaucracy which is beginning to happen and russia and that's and that's certainly a conscious choice so i suppose it's both a change of appearance and a change of philosophy and a kind of practical achievement of some kind to but also this is a this is also a kind of global presence you have this kind of thing in in georgia for example to which me house has really instituted these kind of i mean. really is not fair trade and western process as a leader whose main concern is maintaining control over his population and when you put yourself in that position all of the russian leaders. the supposedly

authoritarian russian leader is what's the point all investing anything in improving how the state interacts with the people unless you mean them because i would think that it's politically dangerous people would get used to being treated with dignity very quickly and supposedly they will start demanding it everywhere i mean yeah sure there's no you know these are all things the improvement of pavements and the provision of of more streamlined kind of happy smiling bureaucrats is something that's going to be that's going to be appreciated by people but neither of those things are reducible to the underlying political system these are things that kind of in a morass with a tearing context and in a more or less democratic context and sort of in many contexts in between there's more to it than you know there's more going on in russia than putin the provision of my of documents and as also there's also you know the free speech is being treated in that way and you know who are the things that are often so so i don't i'm not judging just not necessarily sure that you can make that connection and to

be honest i've never heard anyone suggest that my documents on this stream on bureaucracy some sort of weapon of an authoritarian regime necessarily well are there many people who are such as that is also i report response abide the authorities to the protest in two thousand and eleven two thousand and twelve i mean you cannot isolate those things there is think should be taken into into context but overall i think i would argue at least that there is a movement on that on the part of the authorities to make the interaction between the state and the people much more humane than it used to be five years ago let alone fifty years ago in terms of public space there's a sort of there's a theory we would be nice during my research and most of these debates is ideological debates because of them in which people talked about things that idea and one of the participants in the debates was it was a job difficult over of india and she made this extremely interesting observation in her view is that the idea of park my streets does. produce

a certain kind of freedom even though this freedom is produced through authoritarian means so my street program renovation program happens much more quickly and russia than it does for example in warsaw which is another city which i'm familiar with because the decision making mechanisms. these things to happen more quickly would go to the with all of the sort of advantages and disadvantages that entails so even to now said and this is something that are going to go to heaven and other people from k.b. stroke i have repeated numerous times to as well as as well as people who for the most community that in a sense even though this is being done by with a retiring means it's going to eventually generate a sort of freedom a kind of a kind of democratic sort of civil society purely through the fact that people can meet in a park in this space which is right next to the kremlin and which used to be this is which which used to be the kind of sacred place so there is that there is a sort of i'd quite an intriguing ideology emerging that you can engineer kind of liberty through authoritarian means yeah that's there that's actually marx a marxist claim taken to its logical and that your being your surroundings i mean

it's a sort of weird mutation of marxist books is already because marxist don't talk so much about freedom and they don't talk about with our terrorism either but you know sure there is a kind of like there is a sort of leninist logic that you mentioned the part that idea couple of times let me ask you a question about that as you mentioned it's like a day just steps away from the kremlin and from what i understand you see it as a primarily a political project you said in one interview that it was the kremlin masses to the people telling them that they should be grateful just what makes you believe that i mean again this is i think this is an interview on c.b.c. which is that is a particular way but i mean that with us no i was saying about the death you know that there is to the public so there's definitely a political message to the public it's a it's a so it's a gift from the from this over and i previously worked in the palace of culture and science in warsaw which is thought in a skyscraper which was to put food as having been. if did by stalin to

a grateful people and thereby also to ensnare them in a sense of power relation and a similar narrative was repeated about that newton's idea there was a famous scene in two thousand and twelve and one person said be on your visit to the site of that added together so be there were lots of cameras all around them and put in as if spontaneously suggested to. my baby would be good idea to build a pocket and a gift the first puck for fifty years to the people of moscow so there is this kind of quiet quiet sort of vigorous the articulated sort of gift of logic there is the politicization of the puck is not that i'm doing it's been done by the i think it's legal or even there that there is a political symbolism here but i think the symbolism that putin was putting into that is quite different from the way you're interpret that because. i mean from the russian point of view there is absolutely nothing distasteful about the politics that favors turning these prime real estate location into a public space rather than a porsche shopping district would have happened on the risk of yeah and i mean this

is also a case i grew and it was a case of i mean you know to be to be frank i most you know what it was so the idea of putting a park in the center of was or would be hard to the people who people in work in the municipality would be hard to convince to do that because because the fear of losing sort of profit income from this plot of land would be would be too great with other things on the discussion is changing too however it's also a mistake so this is perhaps an element of dissemination or or of kind of money pronation if you like it's a mistake to see that the idea purely as a public space is co financed by private investors a big chunk of the idea of the two restaurants this so-called seven star hotel which is being opened in the in the corner of that idea real privately owned a lot of a lot of the operations in the park are running commercially so it's not it's not appealed the public space it's not the purely public space but there still are many are quality time a platoon. it is they are totally free of charge for

a for the visitors and for for you know for the gas and for what i know more than ten million people visited that park since two thousand and seventeen so that's kind of shows you that you know the kind of inequality income inequality you talked about before i don't think it's. a very much demonstrated in the in that end is intended it is or it is people do like that idea and people from different walks of life a lot of people young people who do go to the park and enjoy it however and this is fantastic there's no denying that this is it is an extraordinary achievement by a group of very determined people. within the municipality and outside of it who managed to sort of push this thing through a very reluctant sort of political and economic context doesn't mean that and of course he doesn't manifest itself in various in various places in the park you know the if you want to eat in the restaurant or even in the so-called democrats the preist government center you're going to fork out about five hundred rubles which

is about sort of dollars nine dollars for a for a play to me which is a lot given the fact that what the average wage and moscow is today if you want to go to see the poll you would know the flight of a moscow the size of russia so the flight simulator attraction you have to pay eight hundred rubles to see that so there's a sort of segregation of the park that certain things are accessible to people namely being outside and just sitting in a pug where a certain part of the park are new acceptable to those people well but i mean this is after all no the socialist country i mean the parks have to be maintained and. there's also have to make money on something i want to also ask you one more i guess it's kind of philosophical question because. i think the main difference between the soviet urbanism and the this new russian urbanism is an explicit conceptual focus on the people rather than baek structures as used to be a during soviet times that's why you have swings back and chairs trees playgrounds appearing on central streets of moscow where they haven't been before. do you think

do you take that as an important shift in perspective for you do you do you still think that it's something that perhaps is not worthy of being noticed i mean this is a huge discussion and this is one which is at the set at the core of my over i'm trying to figure out with my research sort of comparative you know any muster elsewhere mushroom potent etc etc i think that certainly there was a low about servia of an ism which was focused on the people both in terms of the provision of public spaces as well as of leisure facilities that were affordable in the census of cities and elsewhere the big difference the you know beyond just the discussion about public improvement the the big distinction where servia of an ism is shown to be more for the people of the post-surgery of an ism is precisely in the issue of housing in the you know in the course of era and subsequent it's rationing of the must housing program in large amounts of people who have that the quality of their living vastly improved in

a short space of time they will mix together so there was a conscious effort made by by servia city of. those of social planning as well as an architectural planning of them and social groups were mixed together and there was a there was this creation of a new kind of servia sort of collectivity through this housing this housing is now if the so-called renovation program happens literally going to be destroyed and it's very difficult to tell what the what the new kinds of housing that will replace the khrushchev that will replace the most housing of of of moscow will look like but you know it's very unlikely that this housing will be as much for the people as the as the as the herself so this remains to be seen while mr murawski let's talk again in a few years but for the time being we have to leave it there thank you very much for sharing your insights but as thank you encourage our viewers to keep this conversation going in our social media pages and hope to hear again same place same time here and of all the party.

us veterans who come back from war often tell the same stories. were going after the people who were killing civilians they were not interested in the wellbeing of their own soldiers either they're already several generations of them so i just got this memo from the circular defenses officer says we're going to attack and destroy the government and seven countries in five years americans pay for the wars with their money others with their lives if we were willing to go into harm's way and

willing to risk being killed for a war then surely we can risk some discomfort for uneasiness for peace. us producing a lot of oil and gas in our energy and abandonware as big as them in russia and saudi arabia but as you're making there is that they're actually losing money on the other back. when a loved one is murder it's natural to seek the death penalty for the murder i would prefer and it means when the death penalty just because i think that's a fair thing the right thing research shows that for every nine executions one convict is found innocent the idea that we were executing innocent people is terrifying the is just no way to present in that we're even many victims' families

want the death penalty to be abolished the reason we have to keep the capitol here is because that's what murder victims' families want to that's going to give them peace that's going to give them justice and we come in and say. not quite enough we've been through this this isn't their way. this is what the decisions will be out on the floor of the united states passing a resolution this point it would encourage the who these were encouraged to raise a split emerges in washington over the u.s. stops toward saudi arabia with the senate calling for ending aid to the gulf going to war effort in yemen something the white house adamantly opposed it.