Moscow at 878: Forged in Fire, Driving War and Energy Chess

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As Moscow marks 878 years since Yuri Dolgoruky’s banquet, its legacy of resilience is again tested—this time by Western sanctions, the Ukraine war, and Putin’s use of history to anchor Russia’s claim to power and sovereignty.

By TRH Global Affairs Desk

NEW DELHI, September 13, 2025 — Moscow is celebrating its 878th anniversary, a reminder that few capitals in the world have been as often destroyed, rebuilt, and weaponized as symbols of national destiny. First mentioned in 1147, when Prince Yuri Dolgoruky hosted a banquet on the Moskva River, the city was little more than a fortified settlement. Today it is not only Russia’s seat of power but also the nerve center of a conflict that has reshaped global geopolitics.

The city’s story is one of resilience. It endured Mongol invasions in the 13th century, Napoleon’s fires in 1812, and Hitler’s armies at its gates in 1941. Each time Moscow was left scarred, it rose again—its survival stitched into the Russian psyche. That resilience has become Vladimir Putin’s favourite political metaphor.

For Putin, Moscow is not simply a capital but a stage. Red Square hosts annual military parades projecting strength to the world. The Kremlin’s medieval walls serve as a backdrop for defiance against Western pressure. Even the city’s contradictions—Lenin’s tomb beside luxury boutiques, onion domes rising behind Stalinist towers—are turned into proof that Russia thrives by absorbing history, not erasing it.

Today, however, Moscow faces its sternest test since the Cold War. Western sanctions following the Ukraine war have targeted its financial arteries, forcing Russia to redirect oil and gas flows eastward. The EU’s planned 2028 exit from Russian energy is meant to strangle the Kremlin’s war chest. Yet Moscow, once reduced to ashes by foreign armies, now deploys energy as a geopolitical weapon. Discounted barrels flow to India, pipelines pivot toward China, and the Kremlin presents this realignment as another chapter of endurance.

In this narrative, Moscow becomes both fortress and fulcrum: a fortress against NATO encirclement, and a fulcrum of global energy politics. Its resilience, Putin argues, is Russia’s guarantee of sovereignty in an age when economic and information warfare matter as much as armies.

But anniversaries cut both ways. For many critics, the spectacle of Moscow’s birthday rings hollow while Russian soldiers fight in Ukraine, while ordinary Russians feel the weight of inflation, and while the city’s glittering skyline masks deep economic divides.

Still, the symbolism endures. On its 878th birthday, Moscow stands as it always has: scarred, defiant, and central to Russia’s identity. In Putin’s telling, just as Moscow survived Mongols, Napoleon, and Hitler, it will also survive Western sanctions and the Ukraine war.

Because Moscow does not just remember history—it bends it to serve the present.