Russia, once a hotbed of Soviet-funded research, is clearly feeling left out of the world's technological developments. The country is trying to make up for it by packing lots of thinking into Skolkovo, a so-called "innovation town" to be built outside Moscow.

This week, French architectural group AREP Ville unveiled the winning design for the town. The 15,000-person, $4.3 billion city will feature five zones, each focusing on a different area of research: IT, nuclear, biomedical technologies, energy, and space research. Residents will get the benefit of picturesque tree-lined walkways, bike paths, and foot bridges. And, presumably, free-flowing vodka.

The whole thing will be powered by renewable energy, courtesy of on-site geothermal facilities, solar panels, and wind farms. So far, companies like Nokia, Siemens, Cisco [2] and Intel [3] have expressed interest in setting up shop in the town, according to the Moscow Times [4]. Microsoft [5] has already signed a draft agreement to come on board.

Cultivating an innovative town or city isn't always easy--just ask the United Arab Emirates. The country's Masdar City [6]--a zero-emissions cleantech city-within-a-city that was clearly the inspiration for Skolkovo--was once supposed to host self-driving transit pods, massive geothermal facilities, and a number of cleantech companies. The companies are staying, but financial problems have forced Masdar to scrap many of its more ambitious plans (the transit pods are still there, albeit on a smaller scale).

So it it possible to build a successful "innovation town" from the ground up like this? We can watch Masdar for clues. That city won't be finished until approximately 2025, but it looks [7] promising so far. Whether AREP and Russia can pull off a similar feat remains to be seen. Perhaps someone should consider building an innovation city in a place without extreme weather. Somewhere like Northern California?

[Image: AREP]

Reach Ariel Schwartz via Twitter [8] or email [9].