Chapayevsk: Not exactly Trabolgan

A while back I mentioned the island of Tristan de Cunha as areshole of the world. Well if that's the case (and I usually stand by my convictions) then Chapayevsk is the failing kidney of the world. In fact this place is such a shitbox that the mayor - Nikolai Malakhov - is calling for his own town to be shut down. He told visiting state officials that he wants the town closed down and the citizens re-settled.

This former beacon of Soviet industrialism was the home to their most productive arms factories, including the ones that produced lovely toxic agents. It also got an employment-boosting weapons disposal factory in 2001 to sit astride the now defunct Soviet munitions factories and the thriving local chlorine plant. One of Russia's largest daily newspapers reports that "mortality rates caused by tuberculosis, cancer of the throat, liver and the kidneys are three times higher in Chapayevsk than in the rest of the region."

I can't see the townspeople getting moved however as last year the Natural Resources Minister Alexander Fyodorov advised local leaders in Chapayevsk to look on the positive side and project an "aura of well-being," which would attract investment. That's the spirit.