(unknown)

Letter to the Times, London

June 09, 2004
Moscow buildings
>From Mr Kevin O’Flynn

Sir, A construction boom in Moscow is destroying swaths of the old city
(report, May 20). What the communists failed to complete, uncontrolled
capitalism is finishing off.

In Russia’s young capitalist market, the demolition/construction business
is highly profitable. Over the last 12 years, according to Alexei Komech,
head of the arts history institute in Moscow, more than 400 buildings, some
from the 17th century, have been destroyed, including 60 listed buildings
that by law should be untouchable. Future generations will wonder how their
capital’s heritage was so brazenly wiped away.

A number of foreign and Russian preservationists, architects and historians
have formed the Moscow Architecture Preservation Society, to encourage the
proper restoration of old buildings and convince the city authorities that
the continued demolitions are not in the city’s long-term interest.

Yours faithfully,
KEVIN O’FLYNN
(Co-founder, Moscow Architecture Preservation Society),
c/o Post International,
44 Clerkenwell Road, EC1M 5PS.
[email protected]
June 8.