The Russian president spent time at Luzhniki station before travelling to Ploshchad Gagarina station.

The railway was built to replace the old smaller ring of the Moscow Railway, and is incorporated into the metro system, joining existing metro lines with radial commuter railway lines. The project was launched in 2011 and involved complete reconstruction of the railway, electrification and resignalling.

Services on the 54km line will be operated by a fleet of Siemens Lastochka EMUs which were manufactured in Russia. The line has 31 stations and interchanges with 11 metro lines and nine railway lines.

A complete journey around the ring will take 1h 24min and services run from 05:50 and end at 00:30. Trains will also run at six-minute intervals during peak hours (07:30 - 11:30 and 17:00 – 20:30) and 12 minutes off-peak. Trains will run from 12:00 – 17:00 with six minute intervals at weekends and on public holidays. By 430,000 passengers per day and 250 million passengers per year are expected to use the line. Up to 25 million passengers are anticipated to use the service in the remainder of 2016.

Launch of passenger traffic on the Moscow Central Ring is expected to increase economic activity in the centre of the city, promote redevelopment of industrial areas, create jobs, and ease pressure on the metro system.