Our Innovative Moscow Mayor

Say what you will about Yuri Luzhkov, I think Moscow has a mayor who is always one step ahead.  A man with ideas about how to better his city, he is making plans now to keep the snow from hitting Moscow during the upcoming winter season. 

Having lived here for over a decade and visiting here before that a few times I can attest to the fact that snow in this giant of a city is a problem!  Every year you see a constant parade of dump trucks and snow removal crews hitting the highways and the traffic, which is already beyond description comes to a slow crawl or a complete standstill - for hours.  Many of the trucks simply dump the snow into the rivers here but that doesn't even take care of all of it.  It's Russia after all, isn't it? 

We usually have a blanket of snow from November until March.

Well, this year Mayor Luzhkov is taking the budget which is normally used to shovel the streets and he's hitting the air with it.  It is even going to be cheaper.  He is tasking the Air Force to spray the clouds with cement powder, dry ice or silver iodide. 

If he sprays the incoming blizzards, which Moscow is so famously prone to, before they get to the city then they will dump their snow on the outlying regions.  Moscow will be spared the snarl of traffic and the tons and tons of snow, but the regions have a little debate going on about it.  What about their streets?

We shall see what this winter shall bring.  I for one, as a muscovite, will be happy to have a clear sidewalk to park on and a clean road to drive down.

Happy motoring Moscow!