A walk in the worst neighborhoods of Moscow

Let's go to the districts of the Russian capital that you won't find in any travel advisor. We will visit criminal, polluted or dirty neighborhoods that are surprisingly located not very far from the Kremlin of Moscow. Let me know in the comments whether you were surprised to see this and if there are neighborhoods like that in your city as well.

Time codes:
0:00 What does Moscow hide from tourists?
1:33 Golyanovo District - creepy abandoned warehouses near new buildings
5:46 Izmailovo District - the birthplace of Peter the Great
7:42 The huge former central stadium of Stalin in Izmailovo District
9:21 Stalin's bunker - now it's a museum
9:53 Inside the stadium - a home for immigrants
10:36 Interview with an immigrant. How's work in the capital?
14:16 Kapotnya District - polluted air and an oil plant
16:16 Biriouliovo Zapadnoe - huge thermal power plant inside the city

🔸What can you find on my channel?

My name is Elina, friends call me Eli. I am from Russia, and on my channel, I share the Russian culture and travel to remote places of the country. I also discover other countries, cultures, and languages when studying or working abroad.

Here you will find
👉🏻explanation of the Russian culture and facts about Russia that you won't find on google
👉🏻interviews with people in the streets on controversial topics
👉🏻opportunities for education for international students and learning the Russian language
👉🏻travel vlogs from the Big country

📍 More videos:

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[billboardprint]

If those are bad neighborhoods, than you do not have bad neighborhoods

[heatherfeather]

I feel so sad for the man from Kyrgyzstan. You can see that he is a hard-working sincere man who just wants a better life for his family and he has to make such sacrifices.

[markriffey]

6_30 - That homeless encampment looks 1000x better than the way I see people live in Seattle and San Francisco.

[mountainpeakcloud]

Moscow: “look at this dangerous, depressing, scary neighborhood”. Detroit: “hold my beer”.

[grantchallinor]

Honestly Eli, having spent much of the last decade in Moscow, it compares very well to most major European and American cities. Being from the UK, I can categorically say that Moscow is much, much cleaner than UK cities like London, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool. There are also no areas of Moscow (day or night) that I've ever felt not safe when visiting.
Every major city has abandoned warehouses, office buildings and goods yards.
If you really want a shock visit the downtown areas of US cities like Detroit, St.Louis, Philadelphia, Baltimore and so You would be shocked! Even in the centre of Los Angeles you can turn off into a side street and be in the ghetto after just a few 100 metres.
Of course, Moscow has its problems (like everywhere) but, honestly it's not such a bad place. You also rarely see the social problems (related to race or different religious beliefs) that you see in the US and Europe (I'm not saying they don't exist in Moscow) but in Russia people seem more tolerant and respectful to others living in their neighbourhood.
I have an apartment about 10km from the centre of Moscow and the streets and pavements are kept just as clean as the centre. Sometimes, in the summer months, children leave their toys outside during the night and they still seem to be there the next morning! You wouldn't do that in many other countrys' cities...

[nidhishukla]

There are similar areas in all major cities of the world. One side is beautiful and touristy, other side is crowded and polluted with undocumented immigrants also as part of the crowd. I hope the electrician guy is able to live with his family. I could see the loneliness in his eyes, but he still works hard and hopes for a better future. 🙏

[ranellnikora]

Honestly, I'm pleasantly surprised at how liveable even the worst neighborhoods appear to be. I've felt more unsafe in train stations in Brisbane, or traveling through northern France. Granted we were there in 2017 when the attacks were happening so they were a bit on edge. But this is way cleaner than some of the streets right next to major tourist spots in Rome. Moscow might be on my visit list now.

[maxsonthonax]

I'm 5 minutes in & I'm already finding it hilarious how profoundly middle-class Eli must be, to be shocked by the state of some random abandoned warehouse! 😃 I could WALK from my flat in inner Brisbane (Australia) to a warehouse looking exactly like this & feel completely indifferent to it.

[rezamoharami]

But seems to me, even the worst neighborhoods of Moscow look cool to hang out in. Also I guess with this speed of development and construction in Moscow, they definitely have some plans for those areas. Cool video! Thanks Eli!
I also watch Zen Studio's walking videos, they're really good!

[coloradomountain]

Just 10km from downtown Denver is an oil refinery and every so often, the company is fined for spewing pollution. These worst neighborhoods of Moscow are just abandoned, it is not like gangsters packed with guns hanging out on the street selling drugs on broad daylight. Those people who live in the stadium seem to be decent working class people.

[lucatoni]

dear girl, you don't know what is worst neighborhoods, trust me
if it's unsafe depression places, my congrats to your city and country

[arkman]

After watching the electrician's take on his place, that's actually a fairly clean place with eight men living in a barracks type setting.
That is a very nice view from the window compared to other places in the world.
The plants within the city limits is common all over the world.
Plants usually start out outside of cities and then business move closer to the plants and workers move closer to be near their work.
Before you know it it's a community and part of the city.
You are very young so it's not surprising you are confused about this sort of area.

[alvinpaul]

I just realized Eli has all 3 colours of the Russian Flag: white skin, blue eyes and red hair. Perfect representative of Russia 😂

[brysonboehl]

I work in the oil refineries in Southern United States. There are MANY of these plants in downtown or suburban areas. I love your history lesson of the stadium and Stalins' bunker. Very interesting stuff!

[jerrywright]

Eli, I think that you have lived a very sheltered life. There are areas in the big cities in the US that are not only poor, but your life is at risk if you decide to walk around and take videos of the people. The reason why people live around industrial areas is because the industries were built first and people moved next to the industries to be closer to work. Good video.

[williamowen]

This channel is what I love about youtube. Next best thing to actually visiting. No varnish, no sentimentality. Just what the place is actually like. Brilliant.

[gijsschubert]

Eli, this is wonderful. I was deeply touched by the interview of the electrician Sinalev from Kyrgyzstan starting at 10:00, who lives in poor conditions, and have his dream to move his family to Moscow and by an apartment there.... It is very moving. You have a very sincere and honest way of interview all kinds of people. You have a talent for this!
P.S. I live in Moscow since early this year and I love this wonderful peaceful city of 12 mln people.

[Jesse-B]

Russia remains a "scary place" in the minds of many westerners, so it's very nice to see an inside view from you, thanks Eli, I enjoyed it.

[MichaelVLang]

This is a fantastic and enlightening video Eli, thank you for producing it. Moscow has always fascinated me. It's more colorful than I pictured. :)

[johnmccann]

This isn't just a Russian thing, I live in central Scotland and 3Km from my house is an ethylene cracking plant. Also if you have a look at Grangemouth there is a huge petrochemical complex and oil refineries which are one half of the town. then at Rosyth there are the decommissioned hulls of 6 nuclear submarines right on the edge of town. Also on the west coast the Royal navy base keeps British naval nuclear submarines (because apparently it's too dangerous to have them close to populated areas in England, Scottish people are expendable, I can't wait for our independence).
England likes to make money but keep the nasty dirty stuff away from where the rich people live.