# Smart Cities in Russia: Current Situation and Insights for Future Development
###### Abstract  
The development of smart cities is a clear growing trend all around the world. The convergence of different technological, social, political, economical, and ecological trends has allowed the concepts to rise up quickly in governmental agendas. In this paper, we analyze the situation of Russia regarding smart cities. Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Kazan are considered at the \"Smart City 3.0\" stage of development, meaning that the citizens are participating in their advancement. Our reasons to focus on Russia are two-fold: (1) we know the situation well, as we live and work in a new city, Innopolis, founded in 2015 and meant to be a blueprint for smart cities; (2) large Russian cities are actively developing projects in this sphere and are highly regarded worldwide in these endeavors. It is therefore worth analyzing the context and the trends. By studying the scientific literature and categorizing the features of smart cities the world over, we found that large Russian cities are developing most of the components necessary in order to be called smart. Herein we also discuss areas of possible growth for Russian cities, such as green technologies and a smart environment.  
smart city; smart city components; smart cities in Russia; challenges for smart cities in Russia +
Footnote †: journal: Future Internet  
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Footnote 1: [[https://www.mdpi.com/journal/futureinternet](https://www.mdpi.com/journal/futureinternet)]([https://www.mdpi.com/journal/futureinternet](https://www.mdpi.com/journal/futureinternet))  
Academic Editors: [PERSON], [PERSON], [PERSON] and [PERSON]. Received: 27 August 2021  
Accepted: 23 September 2021  
Published: 28 September 2021  
regions. Therefore, any innovation related to smart cities would immediately affect most of the citizens, and so can be tested. For example, in European Russia 70% of population live in 20% of the territory, primarily Moscow (14% of overall population), Saint Petersburg (7%), Yekaterinburg, Kazan, etc. ([[https://rosstat.gov.ru/](https://rosstat.gov.ru/)]([https://rosstat.gov.ru/](https://rosstat.gov.ru/)) accessed on 22 September 2021).  
An ideal smart city is a place comfortable for people, green, clean, cozy, and quiet. There is still no universally accepted definition of the term \"smart city\". Various definitions draw attention to different facets of this term. According to [PERSON] et al. [7], a comfortable and safe environment that is constructed with the help of computerized technology is called a smart city. Another definition of \"smart city\" presented in the article [8] mentions that the \"smart city\" is a new kind of urban environment that provides sustainable growth and stimulating high-tech economic activity, which reduces the burden on the environment and improves the populations' quality of life. Instead of focusing on defining the term, let us see what it means for a citizen to live in a smart city.  
We characterize smart cities by describing the day of a single young professional in Section 2. We need a framework in order to understand and talk about smart cities. In Section 4, we introduce the common components for smart cities around the world. Then, in Section 5, we discuss Russian cities in terms of certain \"smart\" characteristics. Challenges for smart cities are discussed in Section 6.