Novaya Gazeta writes that the Second Court of Cassation rejected the claim of city defenders against the Moscow Mayor’s Office, as they tried to challenge changes in legislation on the protection of monuments.
At the end of 2024, the Moscow City Duma adopted the Law on “Cultural Heritage Properties,” which deprived about 1,500 identified architectural monuments of protection. Among them were the Electrozavod building, the State Security building on Lubyanka, the Sovremennik Theater, the Khitrovskaya Square ensemble and other objects.
In June 2025, representatives of Arkhnadzor filed a lawsuit in the Moscow City Court against the mayor’s office and city head Sergei Sobyanin. According to the city’s defenders, Moscow’s new law conflicts with federal law. The Moscow City Court did not satisfy this claim; The decision in the Court of Cassation remained unchanged.
In mid-June, it became known about plans to demolish Elektrozavod in Moscow, a unique example of industrial architecture of the early twentieth century. In 2025, after a severe fire in the building and the departure of almost all tenants, it was reported that this complex would be rebuilt, but then information appeared that the Moscow Urban and Land Planning Committee approved the demolition. This became possible in particular because Electrozavod lost the protected status of the designated monument.