When people talk about Europe’s prowess with the internet of things (IoT), Russia frequently finds itself overlooked. Yet their IoT offering is significant for businesses and industries, particularly when it comes to their public sector.
Eldar Tuzmukhamedov heads up the Smart City Lab for the City of Moscow, a hub of investigation and action tasked with making Russia’s capital more connected.
Next month, Tuzmukhamedov joins the continental speaker line-up at Smart to Future Cities in London to share what a successful smart city business model looks like. He gave us a preview of what Moscow has achieved, and what it hopes to achieve, in advance of the event.
Tell us more about Smart City Lab and your role there.
“When the Moscow Department of IT was created in 2011, ‘smart city’ was not the buzzword it is now, so when we launched our ‘Information City’ program, it did not get this name.
“However, the Moscow Department of IT became the center that started to work towards smart cities in four main directions: city hardware infrastructure, automation of municipal facilities, provision of digital services and citizen engagement.
“We have already deployed several large-scale systems, which significantly increased the quality of life for Moscow citizens, efficiency of decision-making and competence of management, and allowed for budget savings. Smart City Lab, created in August 2016, is intended to search for innovations and apply new disruptive technology that will make our city better.