Perm Takes Part in the Meeting of the Volga Region Cities Association

Photo: the Volga Region Cities Association

The Mayor of Perm Eduard Sosnin presented the city’s experience in digitalising municipal governance.

On May 15, the general meeting assembly of the Volga Region Cities Association was held. It was attended by mayors and deputy mayors of cities including mayors from Perm, Kazan, Ufa, Samara, Cheboksary, and others.

Alexey Simonov, Assistant to the Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Volga Federal District, addressed the meeting with a welcoming speech. He conveyed greetings on behalf of Igor Komarov, the Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Volga Federal District, In his address, he emphasized the key role of municipalities in the development of territories and the improvement of people’s quality of life.

Alexey Simonov paid particular attention to the importance of the work of local self-government bodies in the pre-election period.

“This September, in addition to the election of the State Duma councillors, around 500 regional and local election campaigns will take place, based on the results of which more than 4,600 mandates will be filled. They include elections to the representative bodies of four administrative centres: Ufa, Saransk, Perm and Saratov. Large-scale municipal campaigns will be held in Mordovia, Kirov and Saratov Regions. Local self-government bodies play a significant role in the running-up to the election and its conduction, as well as in informing residents”, he said.

During the meeting, a wide range of priority issues for the sustainable development of municipalities were discussed. They included the digitalisation of municipal governance as a key factor in achieving the country's strategic development goals, ensuring public safety and implementing national projects in the cities of the Volga Region. In addition, reports were delivered on the organisation of work to preserve and restore cultural heritage sites and their incorporation into urban development strategies, as well as on the activities of local self-government bodies under the conditions of the special military operation.

The meeting was attended by the Mayor of Perm, Deputy Chairman of the Volga Region Cities Association Eduard Sosnin. In his speech, he explained how digital tools help solve three key tasks: to enhance the safety of the urban environment, to ensure transparency of management decisions, and to generate additional budget revenues.

“Effective urban management is impossible without modern information systems. Their implementation is first and foremost a tool for establishing order in the urban environment and increasing the transparency and quality of management decisions. Digitalisation allows us to make decisions based on facts rather than assumotions and to respond quickly to residents’ requests”, noted Eduard Sosnin.

The Mayor of Perm highlighted that from July 2024, all municipal services in Perm have been provided exclusively in electronic format. In 2025, this allowed more than 150,000 services to be provided to residents, while also reducing servicing hours.

Another tool used in the city’s management system shared by the Mayor of Perm was the Automated Information System for Urban Planning. It brings together data on land plots, capital major construction projects, utility networks, and planning constraints town planning restrictions. This provides an opportunity to analyse territory remotely, identify violations and manage municipal property more efficiently.

A separate part of the report was devoted to public transport. Eduard Sosnin said that all buses and trams in Perm are equipped with ticket readers and a navigation system. The Mayor of Perm noted that the quality of services for passengers is improving. Thanks to the integration of the navigation system, passenger traffic monitoring and non-cash payments, the regularity of traffic has exceeded 96%.

The Mayor of Perm also paid attention to the development of paid parking zones, which are monitored by mobile and stationary camera systems. The integration of the parking system with the databases of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate and the Social Fund of Russia allows to check concessions for people with disabilities automatically and to identify violators quickly.

The agenda also covered the Volga Region Cities Association plan of work for 2026. A number of specialised events are planned in the coming months in Nizhny Novgorod, Ufa and Samara. Throughout the year, Association members will continue to exchanging best practices on the implementation of national projects, the preservation of cultural heritage and the development of social infrastructure. Perm will act as a co-organiser and will undertake the compilation of best practices for the arrangement and maintenance of children’s playgrounds and and water-based leisure areas in October.

The Association currently comprises 32 cities. They concentrate the Volga River basin main economic, energy and informational resources, as well as higher education institutions and research centres. The aim of the Association is to coordinate the activities of the Volga region cities for more effective exercise of their rights and interests.