"Why?!" The blogger included Yekaterinburg in their personal top-5 "worst cities in Russia."

      On April 23, 2026, the Telegram channel CatNews compiled and published its own top 5 cities in Russia on Telegra.ph, which the author of the review calls the "worst" (which, of course, is not true; the author is subjective). This "rating" includes Yekaterinburg. What is the author's complaint about the Ural capital?

      "I've traveled a bit around the country and have an opinion, so to speak," writes the author of the review. He preemptively stated that he is only considering regional cities, as small ones cannot compete with them by definition. The first place in the anonymous traveler's dislikes goes to Sochi. He was struck by the lack of navigation in the airport of the resort city ("signs for fools") and the overall difficulties in moving around the city due to roads where the number of lanes sometimes decreases to 3. He also noted the poor condition of the stormwater drainage system ("there are no storm drains" "but there are rains"). There is almost nothing to do in Sochi, while the prices for entertainment are "like in Patriarch's Ponds in Moscow," and for real estate rental "between the forest and the lagoon" — like on Nevsky Prospect in St. Petersburg, he writes.

      The second place is given to Bryansk. According to the author, there is neither preserved architecture in decent condition, nor normal dining options, nor places for walks. He also suspects that because the city is one of the centers of Orthodoxy in the country, everything was closed during Easter.

      The third place goes to Arkhangelsk. "In the city, you can see the bridge over the Dvina, as well as one restored historical quarter of wooden buildings. And that's it," wrote the author. — "Go somewhere? You're not in Murmansk; where can you go here?"

      Yekaterinburg is in fourth place. The main complaint the author has about the capital of the Urals is logistics. He called the Yekaterinburg metro beautiful but "meaningless," as during rush hour, in his opinion, it does not help at all. Exiting the metro at Uralmash, you still end up in a traffic jam that "literally goes to the heavens," notes the author. This is where his dissatisfaction with the city ends.

      In fifth place, the author placed Novokuznetsk. He compares "Kuznya" with Chelyabinsk, but the latter, according to him, is more like "a place where you can live normally," and it is cheaper. "So this is such a sad, decrepit city," which is not yet Arkhangelsk and "not a hole like Bryansk," but "striving to be somewhere in that direction."

      Out of competition, under the number "0," the author includes Krasnodar, because "this is not a city, this is an urban-type settlement" with a million population, he notes about the lack of high-rise buildings and a large private sector.