"Joke of the Day." At an infrastructure forum, they declared that Kazan is as comfortable as Dubai.

The capital of Tatarstan is not inferior to foreign megacities in terms of the level of development of the urban environment and digital technologies, считает President of the NOTIM Association (National Association of Organizations in the Sphere of Information Modeling Technologies) Mikhail Viktorov. 

"With all due respect to Dubai, I've been visiting Kazan much more often lately. Three times in the last three months. It's not just a coincidence <…> You don't have to go to Dubai; you can go to Kazan," Viktorov said at the Rebus 2025 international forum on digitalization and infrastructure. 

As an example, he cited the heron-shaped swing near the Kamal Theatre, which he rode with his wife and children. 

The republic's official news agency published news from the forum. Tatarstan authorities are actively promoting and extolling Kazan, trying to present it as a modern, comfortable, and attractive city for living and tourism.

The Kazanians began to play cheerfully discuss comparison in Dubai.

"Joke of the day," "Has it gotten that bad in Dubai?", "Oh, and I thought Kazan was at least ahead of New York," "It's really not that bad in terms of prices," "Turn off your internet more often, then they'll believe you," "In Dubai, they probably also run around with basins when the water is turned off," write residents. 
They also recalled floods, which occur during almost every rainfall, slums, garbage, and much more. And they demanded, in the event of such a comparison, that they "dig" a sea for them—if possible, an ice-free one.