Published on: 2026-05-27
Source: Moscow Government – Moscow Government –
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Mayor of MoscowSergey SobyaninAnd the Minister of the Russian Federation for Civil Defense, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters, Alexander Kurenkov, signed an agreement between the Government of Moscow and the Ministry of the Russian Federation for Civil Defense, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters (EMERCOM of Russia) on the implementation of joint activities to improve safety at the capital’s water facilities.
The agreement is designed to unite the efforts of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia and municipal authorities to ensure effective control over the movement of small vessels (length not exceeding 20 meters and with a total number of passengers not exceeding 12). This is especially relevant in the context of rapid developmentriver transportIn the city of Moscow. Such high growth rates of river transport development in the capital today require strengthening control over the water body by merging the capabilities and powers of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations (MChS) and the Moscow Government, as well as implementing modern IT solutions and technologies.
By 2025, the passenger traffic of regular, sightseeing, and cruise transportation will reach 4.5 million people. This is an absolute record in the history of passenger transportation on the Moscow River over the last 30 years. At the same time, the passenger flow on regular river transport has quadrupled in three years. It is expected that by 2030, the passenger traffic in the Moscow water area will reach 7.5 million trips on river vessels, including four million passengers of regular transportation. Only in 2026, passenger growth of almost half a million is expected.
“The number of shipowners increases significantly every year, and this is especially relevant for the metropolitan region. Issues of ensuring the safety of people on water bodies are at the center of special attention of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia and require close interaction of all interested authorities. Today, an agreement was signed between the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia and the Government of Moscow on the transfer of part of the authority for the implementation of federal state supervision over small vessels and federal state control over the safety of people on water bodies.””I am confident that our joint work within the framework of the agreement will significantly reduce the risks of incidents occurring, as well as minimize the number of human casualties in the Moscow reservoir,” said Aleksandr Kurenkov.
According to Sergey Sobyanin, over the past four years alone, the total number of registered small-sized vessels in Moscow has increased 2.6 times — to four thousand.
“The navigation season on the Moskva River and the Khimki Reservoir is gradually becoming more crowded. This requires the use of the most modern equipment and IT solutions to control the movement of water transport and ensure compliance with safety rules on the river, and the Moscow Government has accumulated extensive experience in this area. We are grateful to the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, personally to Minister Alexander Vyacheslavovich Kurenkov, for the decision to organize joint work to control small vessels. I am confident that through joint efforts we will make the Moskva River even safer and more attractive,” noted Sergey Sobyanin.
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Agreement between the Government of Moscow and the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia
In accordance with the agreement on joint work, the executive authority body of the Government of Moscow — the Moscow Automobile Road Inspection (MADI) — will be endowed with separate powers in areas such as:
— control of the movement of small vessels in the water area of the Moskva River and Khimki Reservoir within the borders of Moscow, including compliance with speed regulations, parking rules, and the use of water bodies, as well as ensuring passenger safety;
— state control (supervision) over the safety of people on the water body in the water area of the Moscow River and the Khimki Reservoir in terms of compliance with mandatory requirements when using and operating bases (piers and other structures) for parking small vessels;
— drawing up protocols and consideration of cases of administrative offenses in the relevant area (part two of Article 11.7, Articles 11.8, 11.8.1, 11.9–11.12, part two of Article 11.13 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses).
In turn, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations (EMERCOM) will control the quality of the exercise of the specified powers. In addition, it will maintain control over the movement of small vessels on the Yauza and Svodnya rivers, as well as on the city pond. EMERCOM will continue to provide key state services in the field of river transport, such as issuing licenses for operating small vessels, certifying vessel owners, inspecting motorboats, and registering bases for parking.
For the effective implementation of the agreement, mutual access will be provided to the profile information systems of the Moscow Government and the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations (EMERCOM).
The agreement is concluded for five years, comes into force from the moment the order of the Government of the Russian Federation is issued, and will remain in effect until 2031.
The authorized executive body of the Government of Moscow for the exercise of new powers is the Moscow Automobile Road Inspection (MADI). It has significant experience in controlling the stopping and parking of vehicles and successful experience in interaction with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (MVD of Russia) to improve road safety.
MAD inspectors will patrol the waters of the Moscow River and Khimki Reservoir, including jointly with officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Transport Directorate for the Central Federal District of Russia.
In addition, a system of photo and video recording of traffic violations is used for these purposes. It has proven itself well on the streets of Moscow. Currently, the video surveillance system in the river water area includes more than 540 certified cameras. By 2027, their number will increase to 800. This will allow monitoring the entire water area of the Moscow River and the Khimki reservoir within the city limits.
Data from the cameras are integrated into the city automated information system “Moscow.Reka” and are promptly transmitted to control and law enforcement agencies.
For the temporary evacuation of small-sized vessels in Moscow, two specialized berths have been created.
It is expected that the agreement on the joint program between the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia and the Moscow Government in the field of control over small vessels will allow increasing the safety of navigation and creating favorable conditions for the implementation of water transport development projects in the water area of the Moscow River and Khimki Reservoir. It will also attract even more passengers to the best river electric transport in the world.
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Development of Moscow River Transport
The development of the river fleet as a full-fledged urban transport is an important direction of the transport strategy of the Moscow Government.
In 2025, the passenger flow of regular and tourist transportation reached 4.5 million people. This is an absolute record in the history of passenger transportation on the Moscow River over the last 30 years. During this time, the passenger flow on regular river transport has grown fourfold in three years. And by 2030, thanks to the opening of new routes and the renewal of the fleet, the passenger flow on the Moscow River will almost double — from the current 4.5 million to 7.5 million people.
The river fleet is growing at an unprecedentedly high pace. During the 2025 navigation period, 163 excursion and banquet vessels and 31 electric vessels of regular river transport operated on the Moskva River and Khimki Reservoir. In 2026, the regular fleet will increase by another eight vessels.
The total number of registered small vessels in Moscow over the past four years has increased by 2.6 times — from 1,560 to four thousand.
In 2020, after a large-scale restoration, the Northern River Station was opened. In 2023, a comprehensive reconstruction of the Southern River Station was completed. The revival of these large and significant transport infrastructure facilities made it possible to fully restore cruise navigation. Last year, 110 riverboats made cruises from Moscow to 37 regions of Russia and took on board more than 360 thousand passengers.
In 2023, regular passenger transportation on the Moscow River was resumed at a qualitatively new level. For the first time in the world, a year-round modern water transport running completely on electric power was launched.
The first regular route, opened in June 2023 by the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, connected Kievsky railway station with the pier of Heart of the Capital in the area of the namesake residential complex on Shelepikhinskaya Embankment.
Today, there are three regular routes operating on the Moskva River: Kievsky — Fili Park (nine piers), ZIL — Pechatniki (nine piers), and Novospassky — ZIL (six piers), with a total length of about 29 kilometers.
For work on the route, 31 vessels were purchased. All of them were named after the small rivers of Moscow. The vessels have an ice class “led 20”, that is, they can pass through thin ice up to 20 centimeters thick. 134 experienced captains with an average work experience on water of more than seven years operate the modern electric vessels.
Since the opening of regular river routes, passengers have made more than 3.5 million trips on electric vessels. The most popular departure points are the Kievsky, Fili Park, Pechatniki, City – Central, ZIL and Southern river terminals. A total of 24 berths have been installed.
In 2026, it is planned to open the fourth river electric transport route Luzhniki — Kievsky, as well as extend the third route Novospassky — ZIL by more than 1.5 kilometers to the Krasnye Holmy pier on Kosmodamianskaya Embankment. Eight new electric vessels are planned to be launched on the routes.
An important step in the development of river transport was the construction and opening of the Moscow Shipyard — the largest and most modern production facility in the country for various classes of passenger vessels. The project was implemented by order of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin in November 2025.
The shipyard’s capacities are calculated for the production of up to 40 vessels and the technical servicing of more than 100 vessels per year. Over 70 percent of the equipment used at the enterprise is of Russian production.
Currently, eight electric ships of the “Moskva 1.0” series are being built at the Moscow Shipyard. The first four vessels were launched on May 26, 2026. By the end of the year, the launch of the second batch of “Moskva 1.0” ships is expected.
By the end of 2026, 16 more vessels will be laid down, including the unique hybrid cruise vessel “Moscow Golden Ring” up to 100 meters long. It will serve the record-demand tourist river route through the cities of the Golden Ring of Russia.
It is expected that by the end of 2030, 134 electric vessels will be laid down at the Moscow Shipyard, and by the end of 2035 — another 180.
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