I'm interested in how things are going in its 'small cities', cities that would actually be quite large by west European standards. These are the kinds of "mid-sized cities" that the vast majority of Russia's population lives in.
Here's a snapshot of life today in Keremovo, a city of 600,000 people, and which is located about 200km east of Novosibirsk, Siberia, from two people who know the city well, and one of whom grew up there as a child:
Kemerovo is my home region too, it's the place where I was born and grew up. Another name of Kemerovo region is Kuzbass. It's like the Siberian Donbass: in the USSR there were two coal mining regions, Donetsk coal basin and Kuznetsk coal basin. So they were called DON+BASS (Donetsk basin) and KUZ+BASS (Kuznetsk basin). My father was born in Donbass and soon his family moved to Kuzbass where he has been living ever since.
So naturally, the economy of Kemerovo region (Kuzbass) is strongly dependent on coal mining industry, which is one of its major drivers.
In the 90s (before Putin), the region was in a very poor state, when the miners didn't receive salaries for many months and were so desperate that at one point they just blocked the Trans-Siberian railroad, sitting on the rail tracks for weeks and demanding immediate payment of their earnings.
In the 2000s, Kuzbass has been doing quite well, as they've been selling coal to Europe. And then... came the sanctions. They are still selling coal elsewhere, but the industry is struggling for sure.
Apart from coal, Kuzbass also has major metallurgical and chemical plants. Metallurgy is another driver of the regional economy. The name 'Kuz(nets)' means 'smith' in Russian. This industry is in a better position now, especially due to the military needs and such.
Russia in general has a problem of the so-called 'mono-cities', meaning the cities depending solely on a single industry. So if your city is heavily dependent on coal-mining, then it may be struggling right now. The metallurg cities are doing better, etc.
Another currently developing part of the regional economy is tourism. Since the European resorts are now much more difficult to access, many Moscovites now travel to Siberian mountains instead of the Alps. There is a famous large mountain ski and snowboarding resort in Kuzbass called
Sheregesh. That place is certainly booming now.
Another famous tourist attraction is the Tomskaya Pisanitsa complex near Kemerovo city. It's an
open-air museum of ancient petroglyphs.
So in short, some parts of the region are flourishing indeed, while others may be struggling at the moment.