  ostankino tower (, ostankinskaya telebashnya) is a television and radio tower in moscow, russia, owned by moscow branch of unitary enterprise russian tv and radio broadcasting network. standing  tall, ostankino was designed by nikolai nikitin. it is currently the tallest freestanding structure in europe and eighth tallest in the world. the tower was the first free-standing structure to exceed  in height. ostankino was built to mark the 50th anniversary of the october revolution. it is named after the ostankino district of moscow in which it is located.fire at television tower offers new evidence of russia's decay, associated press (reprinted by the independent), 28 august 2000. construction began in 1963 and was completed in 1967. extensive use of prestressed concrete resulted in a simple and sturdy structure. it surpassed the empire state building and was a masterpiece of soviet engineering in the time period it was built, to become the tallest free-standing structure in the world. it held this record for nine years until the cn tower was completed in toronto, canada in 1976, which surpassed its height by .{{cite news|url=http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2000/08/28/cn000828.html|dat
Buildings_and_structures_in_Moscow Buildings_and_structures_with_revolving_restaurants Communication_towers_in_Russia Towers_built_in_the_Soviet_Union Towers_completed_in_1967 Towers_in_Moscow Visitor_attractions_in_Moscow