Russians Can Now Handle Utility Payments and Subsidies Online
In the Moscow region, residents can both pay utility bills and apply for compensation digitally—a shift officials say is already reducing complaints and speeding up response to infrastructure failures.
Residents of the Moscow Region can now manage key housing and utility services entirely online, including paying utility bills and applying for government compensation to offset those costs. The update was announced by the press service of the Ministry of State Administration, Information Technologies and Communications of the Moscow Region.
According to the ministry, more than 150,000 applications for utility-cost compensation were submitted online last year alone. The move is part of a broader push to digitize social support and reduce the need for in-person visits to government offices.
Residents can also pay for utilities using a single digital payment document—an electronic bill that replaces multiple paper invoices from different providers. The digital receipt is delivered instantly, can’t be lost, and is designed to be resistant to fraud.
Fewer Complaints, Faster Fixes
Officials say the digital overhaul of the utilities sector is already producing measurable results. In the Moscow region, complaints about utility-related accidents fell by 14 percent compared with the previous year.
Overall, the number of housing and utilities complaints dropped by 41 percent over the year. Authorities attribute the decline to the rollout of digital monitoring sensors installed at boiler plants and other critical infrastructure.
Data from those sensors is fed into a centralized monitoring platform called Kontur.Housing and Utilities. When readings deviate from normal parameters, the system automatically sends an alert, triggering a maintenance crew to respond.
The result is a more proactive model of utility management—one that relies less on residents reporting problems after the fact, and more on continuous monitoring to catch failures early.
Taken together, the changes reflect how Russia’s public services are being quietly reshaped by software. Utility payments, subsidies, and even emergency response are moving online—turning what was once paperwork-heavy bureaucracy into something closer to a real-time digital system.
