Archnadzor publishes a statement drawing attention to Article 17 of the new Moscow city law No. 24 "On Objects of Cultural Heritage"

Under this article, by 1 July 2025 all newly identified monuments must be entered in the register of regional objects of cultural heritage (OCH), which confers protected status. Those that fail to make it into the register will be struck from the list of identified monuments.

There are currently 1,728 such objects in Moscow, roughly a quarter of the city's monuments of cultural heritage. The compilation of the list of identified monuments began as long ago as the 1970s, but since 2019 the acceptance of applications for identified monuments has been "blocked", and the number of objects taken under protection in the register has begun to fall in Moscow.

The heritage authorities must either enter almost two thousand objects in the register by 1 July, or remove them from the list.

Archnadzor warns that, with so much work to be done in so short a time, it is hard to count on an effective review of every application, especially considering that over the past year only five objects were taken under protection in the register.