Moscow is the world’s most expensive city????... come on guys, don’t be so naïve.

Of course, according to the Cost of Living Survey from the Mercer Human Resources Consulting which was released last week, Russian capital is the world’s most expensive city, and goes ahead of Tokyo, London, New York and all other major cities. But lets take it easy and figure some things out. First of all, the survey is has been carried out to help top-managers of multinational corporations and foreign governments determine how much money they should pay to their expatriate employees who go to work in Russia. And at this point we deal with the methods of counting all this things, as they counted maximum prices at all spheres. Many aspects that do not have much to do with day-to-day life of the usual muscovite are counted here. These are for example, using taxi from the hotel, paying for the hotel (and at some Moscow hotels a night costs the same as a week trip to Turkey), having meals at expensive restaurants, etc. Moreover, rental prices do not also reflect the whole situation, as only property in the central part of Moscow is taken into account, and here the prices on property are really exorbitant. In addition to this, it is believed that expatriates spend a lot of money to create an atmosphere and environment at their homes in Moscow that would remind them of their own country.
So and what about Russians as such? How many people in Moscow can live a life of a “citizen of the world’s most expensive city”? And do they tend to spend huge sums of money? Yes, sure. If you go through boutiques in the central streets of Moscow, you’ll see that there is a great demand for luxurious goods. Who are these people? Actually, a small bunch of tycoons, about 5 % of the total Moscow population, who can afford to live like this. But the majority of citizens manage to live on money which may seem not enough to a European or to an American. And they live their life according to their salary.
What is not taken into account in this survey, is the great social gap, as the huge sums of money are concentrated in the small groups of population, and the prices which were taken into account are not the average prices, but maximum ones. So, the whole picture of the cost of living in Moscow lacks objectivity. And this is a sad thing, as according to the Russian Tourism Industry Union press-secretary, this price-factor is the first in the list of reasons, why tourists choose other destinations instead of Russia.