The Prime Minister spoke at a forum’s plenary session and toured the exhibition.
Visiting the forum’s exhibition, Development of Small Towns and Historical Settlements. With Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, Minister of Construction, Housing and Utilities Irek Fayzullin, Head of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, and Deputy Prime Minister and Chief of the Government Staff Dmitry Grigorenko
Visiting the forum’s exhibition, Development of Small Towns and Historical Settlements. With Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, Minister of Construction, Housing and Utilities Irek Fayzullin, Head of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, and Deputy Prime Minister and Chief of the Government Staff Dmitry Grigorenko
Visiting the forum’s exhibition, Development of Small Towns and Historical Settlements. With Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, Minister of Construction, Housing and Utilities Irek Fayzullin, Head of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, and Deputy Prime Minister and Chief of the Government Staff Dmitry Grigorenko, Housing and Utilities Irek Fayzullin
Visiting the forum’s exhibition, Development of Small Towns and Historical Settlements. With Head of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, and Deputy Prime Minister and Chief of the Government Staff Dmitry Grigorenko
Visiting the forum’s exhibition, Development of Small Towns and Historical Settlements. With Head of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, Deputy Prime Minister and Chief of the Government Staff Dmitry Grigorenko, and Minister of Construction, Housing and Utilities Irek Fayzullin (left)
Visiting the forum’s exhibition, Development of Small Towns and Historical Settlements. With Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, Minister of Construction, Housing and Utilities Irek Fayzullin, Head of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, and Deputy Prime Minister and Chief of the Government Staff Dmitry Grigorenko, Housing and Utilities Irek Fayzullin
Visiting the forum’s exhibition, Development of Small Towns and Historical Settlements. With Head of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, Minister of Construction, Housing and Utilities Irek Fayzullin
Visiting the forum’s exhibition, Development of Small Towns and Historical Settlements
Visiting the forum’s exhibition, Development of Small Towns and Historical Settlements. With Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, Minister of Construction, Housing and Utilities Irek Fayzullin, Head of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, and Deputy Prime Minister and Chief of the Government Staff Dmitry Grigorenko
The National Forum for the Development of Small Towns and Historical Settlements is a key industry initiative, held as part of the federal project to create a more comfortable urban environment launched in response to a Presidential instruction.
The forum serves as a central platform that brings together representatives from federal and regional authorities, development institutions, and leading experts in architecture, urban planning, and design. Together, they work to discuss and develop new solutions.
The theme for the 2025 edition is ‘Inspire. Grow. Succeed!’
During public discussions, interactive events, and the plenary session, participants will review the outcomes of public space improvement initiatives and other small town development projects.
The forum’s business programme will feature the announcement of the winners of the 10th national competition for the best comfortable urban environment projects, as well as the 4th competition for regions in the Far Eastern Federal District. Over the competition’s history, 1,609 winning projects from 924 municipalities have been selected. In 2025, 424 applications were submitted to the nationwide competition, with another 103 submitted for the Far Eastern track. The plan is to select a total of 294 winners: 240 from the nationwide competition and 54 from the Far Eastern Federal District.
The forum will also feature an exhibition highlighting key achievements and the most effective tools and practices in urban development from recent years. Exhibitors include manufacturers of road and municipal equipment; lighting and play equipment for parks and playgrounds; street musical instruments and art installations; landscaping fixtures; bus stops; above-ground and underground solid municipal waste collection systems; and software for operating smart city infrastructure facilities.
The Construction Ministry’s exhibition stand features an interactive panel and infographics that familiarise participants with the winning, already-implemented projects from previous competitions for creating a comfortable urban environment in small towns and historical communities.
Among the key fixtures on the stand are two interactive touch panels – one presenting the best projects from the nationwide competition for creating a comfortable urban environment in small towns and historical communities and the other showcasing the key functionality of the Gosuslugi.Dom platform, an app that operates on the basis of the State Information System for Housing and Public Utilities. The infographics display the achievements of digital services in the housing and utilities sector.
Additionally, visitors can watch before-and-after videos demonstrating urban improvements in small towns, as well as animations that illustrate the key indicators of the Construction Ministry’s programmes on a multimedia screen.
The Republic of Tatarstan, the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions will present their significant achievements in the development of urban environment on their stands.
Mikhail Mishustin’s remarks:
Good afternoon, friends.
Welcome to the Small City and Historical Town Development Forum. For many years, this event has served as a networking platform for professionals in urban development and city management to share experience, discuss topical issues and showcase the transformation of small cities and historical towns.
This progress is particularly noticeable. The smaller the town, the more substantial efforts municipal officials must undertake to address several tasks at the same time, including dilapidated infrastructure, youth drain, the loss of backbone facilities, which is happening in some single-industry areas, and the development of modern comfortable living conditions.
We have just visited an exhibition where the mayors of Rybinsk, Bavly and Staraya Russa spoke about almost completely revamping their local economies with their teams.
Our country has an abundance of examples of effective collaboration between local administrations, responsible entrepreneurs, talented and proactive architects, designers and proactive citizens who care.
The transformation of these towns began with winning the All-Russian Best Project for Creating a Comfortable Urban Environment Competition. Grants helped them improve parks, streets and squares, turning these public spaces into points of growth. The city became a place where people come to learn more about Russian culture – much like when they visit Suzdal, Plyos or Satka. Or to immerse themselves in history, as is the case with Uglich and Kolomna. It became a place where you want to return, settle down and start a family – like Sysert or Boguchar. A place for large investment projects that create jobs – like Tobolsk and Derbent. We must talk more about them to inspire other small cities to grow and thrive.
When I spoke to the Mayor of Rybinsk today, he said something very interesting that I will remember and share with others: “Mr Mishustin, people used to drive by and now they drive in.” I want all small cities and towns to be places that people drive into.
The municipal officials of Russian regions know that winning a project competition can serve as a springboard for meaningful changes. This is why the number of competition submissions is only growing.
It is important that, in addition to stand-alone spaces like parks, public gardens and embankments, projects for upgrading streets and entire neighbourhoods are also on the rise among the submissions. Such projects influence the economy and other areas of life. The number of these projects has grown almost fourfold in the past seven years.
Starting this year, the geography of the competition has been expanded. Now, cities and key towns with a population of up to 300,000 people, as well as historical towns that serve as administrative centres, can apply for participation.
This opportunity has been seized by cities such as Stary Oskol, Kostroma, Lyubertsy, Tambov, Arkhangelsk, Murmansk, Nalchik, Nizhnekamsk, and Engels, along with 47 key rural towns. For many of them, this is their first bid for victory.
The results of the 10th Russian competition for the best national projects to create a comfortable urban environment will be announced today. A total of 240 new initiatives will be selected. We will also present the results of the fourth competition for the Far Eastern macroregion, held at the initiative of the President. Notably, the number of winners there has significantly increased: this year, 54 teams will receive grants for the implementation of their projects.
I would like to highlight Donbass and Novorossiya. These territories are experiencing difficulties. They are in need of restoration. Infrastructure recovery is a top priority, but the creation of a modern urban environment is no less important. We are making active efforts to ensure their integration into the nationwide development framework across all spheres.
I believe that introducing a separate nomination at this competition – something colleagues have requested – will, over the next three years, give these regions’ municipalities the opportunity to showcase their potential and become integrated into the national landscape of competitions.
Locals are actively involved in shaping the image of their communities.
The President has repeatedly stressed the importance of citizen participation in determining which projects and priorities should be addressed and receive funds first.
One of the most effective mechanisms in this respect is the nationwide online voting for improvement projects. This year, more than 16.5 million residents across almost all Russian regions took part in this initiative, including over 130,000 from the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as from the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. As a result, around 6,000 proposals from these regions will be considered and implemented.
It is essential that regional leaders continue to prioritise citizen input in their work to create a comfortable urban environment. This remains one of the key conditions for the development of any community, alongside modern housing and well-functioning infrastructure, including engineering, utilities, transport, and social services.
This large task is being carried out within the framework of the national project Infrastructure for Life.
Over the next five years, thousands of kilometres of roads must be renovated, new roads built, engineering and utility networks upgraded, and hundreds of kindergartens, schools, and medical facilities built. People must be relocateds from dilapidated housing, and commercial spaces to support business activity must be created.
To enable the regions to step up renovation and construction of facilities needed by residents, a broad set of instruments has been developed on the President’s instruction. The most widely used are infrastructure budget loans and special treasury loans.
With their help, public transport has been upgraded – more than 8,000 vehicles delivered, including buses, trolleybuses, trams and metro cars. More than 30 million square metres of housing have been built. These funds have also helped attract around 3.5 trillion roubles in private investment.
I would particularly emphasise that expanding infrastructure has created jobs for about 160,000 people – drivers, mechanics, operators, construction workers and many other specialists.
This year, a new instrument has been launched – treasury infrastructure loans. In line with the President’s instructions, one trillion roubles has been allocated for this programme through 2030. A significant share of these loans will go towards modernising public utilities.
In addition, at the President’s initiative, regions now have the opportunity to write off two-thirds of their debts under the government loans. Naturally, this measure applies to those regions that are prepared to reinvest the funds freed up into infrastructure development.
Since the beginning of the year, 55 regions have already taken advantage of this initiative, totalling about 160 billion roubles.
These tools are also being used by regions of the Far East and the Arctic to implement master plans for their cities. For seven of them – Buryatia, Yakutia, Chukotka, the Transbaikal Territory, Kamchatka, the Amur and Magadan regions – financing limits have already been set for this year so they can continue ongoing projects.
During a recent working trip to the microregion, we saw how these projects are being put into practice in Blagoveshchensk, Amur Region. Some facilities there are in a very active phase of construction. I also noted that when looking across the river at the two banks, ours seemed to all of us on the trip more attractive than the Chinese bank. That is very important.
The President has instructed that another 200 master plans be developed for cities across the country – almost half of them small and medium-sized. This represents a fundamentally new approach to the integrated development of territories and to improving quality of life. It makes it possible to take a systematic view of a town or city, through comprehensive analysis of its infrastructure and surveys of residents, as well as to identify promising growth areas and attract investors.
Particular importance lies in establishing the legislative framework for master planning, formalising the status of these documents, their content, and setting requirements for developers.
During today’s exhibition, we discussed this issue along with the necessity to continue training qualified personnel to implement these plans. Our development institute, DOM.RF, has acquired considerable experience by training hundreds of talented young people, including through the Архитекторы.рф platform. Many have achieved significant career progression. Each year, we engage with these young professionals at this forum – and each time, I am convinced that they are true experts who are passionate about their work and highly skilled.
A large-scale effort also lies ahead to develop 2,160 key communities across the country. These form the infrastructural and economic backbone of Russia as a whole, home to the majority of our citizens. Efforts will concentrate there to improve living standards, reduce disparities in economic conditions, and address social sector gaps among Russia’s regions.
To achieve this, we must create growth hubs tailored to each region’s potential – agricultural, industrial, logistical, and more – while ensuring investment inflows, generating jobs, and enabling the construction of modern housing, kindergartens, outpatient clinics, hospitals, and upgraded utilities. This will guarantee access to quality healthcare and education for residents, particularly in remote areas.
These objectives are outlined in the updated Spatial Development Strategy of Russia and its implementation plan, approved last week. Their fulfilment hinges on clear, aligned and coordinated action from all relevant agencies.
As we develop our cities, we must always remember those who gave their lives for the Motherland – across different historical periods, and now, during the special military operation. In honour of our heroes, the President has declared this year the Year of the Defender of the Fatherland.
Participants of the youth forum’s exhibition today presented the interactive Heroes’ Map – a truly brilliant idea, in my view. It could serve as the foundation for future memorials, street names, and public spaces. Naturally, such projects require meticulous, systematic organisation under unified standards, with these memorials integrated into territorial planning to honour our heroes’ deeds and national history.
Today, under arduous conditions, these individuals demonstrate true courage and fortitude, defending their hometowns and historic communities for the benefit of our great nation – Russia. We must support them and their families, immortalising the names of those fulfilling this vital mission so future generations remember their valour. Like them, we must believe in ourselves, in victory, stay the course, and never surrender.
Dear friends, I am confident today’s forum will yield many promising ideas – ones that must translate into beautiful, people-centric urban projects. These will transform streets and districts into comfortable, attractive spaces for residents and tourists alike, while serving as catalysts for broader development across towns, regions, and the entire country.
From the bottom of my heart, I wish you engaging discussions, inspiration, and success.
