Modern features of the development of a comfortable urban space in small towns of the Kaliningrad region

Given the issue of balanced socio-economic development of the entire territory of the Ka­liningrad region, an important task is to improve the quality of life in small towns in the re­gion, as they serve as supporting elements for the regional settlement frame. Attracting feder­al and extrabudgetary funds could be seen as an effective tool in the context of a local budget deficit. To date, improving the quality of urban spaces has been possible due to participation in the all-Russian competition for the best projects for creating a comfortable urban environ­ment, which has been held since 2018. Having accumulated competencies in working on com­petitive project applications, and participating in numerous cross-border cooperation pro­grams, Kaliningrad group actively and very effectively join in this competition, which has already changed the quality of the urban environment. Many small towns of the Kaliningrad region are on the list of federal leaders among the places with the most comfortable urban en­vironment. This circumstance directly improves the possibilities of such cities in attracting investors, maintaining high-quality labor resources and the possibility of expanding their own regional socio-economic specialization.