We present the Moscow Housing Renovation program and its proposed expansion across Russia as a case study of how contemporary practices in urbanism are deployed to support centralized power in authoritarian and hybrid regimes. The concept of stolichnaya praktika ('capital practice') captures how Moscow's exceptionalism is mobilized to make top-down policies seem voluntary, subtly reinforcing regional dependence.

A conversation with:

Amanda Zadorian (The National Research University Higher School of Economics)

Daniela Zupan (The Institute for European Urban Studies, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar)

Vera Smirnova (Kansas State University)

Presented by Decolonizing Eastern European Studies.

Registered participants will receive the Zoom link via email. 

Daniela Zupan is Assistant Professor of European Cities and Urban Heritage at the Institute for European Urban Studies, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. Currently she works on contemporary forms and manifestations of authoritarian urbanism. Daniela holds a diploma in Architecture from Graz University of Technology, a master's degree in Slavic Studies from the University of Graz, and a doctoral degree from University of Stuttgart. 

Vera Smirnova is a human geographer with research interests at the intersection of critical urban theory and traditions of Russian geographic thought. Her most recent research problematizes Eurocentric geographic perspectives by rereading the concept of ‘territory’ from Russian decolonial standpoints. Since completing her Ph.D. in Planning, Governance, and Globalization at Virginia Tech, Vera was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Higher School of Economics, Moscow. Currently, she is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Kansas State University, Department of Geography and Geospatial Sciences. 

Amanda Zadorian is a postdoctoral Research Fellow at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE) in Moscow, Russia. A political economist based at HSE's International Center for the Study of Institutions and Development, she is completing a book manuscript about political legitimacy in financial-rentier states. She also collaborates with the Bauhaus University in Weimar, Germany on a new project exploring contemporary authoritarian urbanism. Amanda received her Ph.D. in Politics from The New School for Social Research.