Moscow places smack dab in the middle of a list of the 100 most comfortable and affordable Russian cities to live in, the RBC news website reported Wednesday.
RBC cited research from the Urbanica spatial planning institute, which ranked the 100 cities with populations over 173,000 based on ease of life and cost of living. The outlet named five cities that fit both criteria: first-place finisher Krasnodar, followed by Surgut, St. Petersburg, Tyumen and Kaluga.
Moscow ranks 52nd as a result of its high cost of living compared with average salaries, as well as traffic jams and pollution, RBC cited the research as saying.
The rapidly developing city of Krasnodar in southern Russia ranked first overall, with a high environmental score, it said.
The city of Surgut in western Siberia scored highest in Urbanica’s affordability list and placed second overall.
Russia’s northern capital of St. Petersburg was the only city with a population of more than 1 million to appear in the top five.
The Far East town of Ussuryisk came in 100th and last place with low wages and relatively high housing costs.
