Best Cities in Russia to Study MBBS: A Guide for Kerala Students
The 54 medical universities on this site are in 43 Russian cities, and the city matters almost as much as the university: it decides the winter, the route from Kerala, the cost of living and, in a few cases, the safety questions. The table below compares all 43 cities on the facts that families ask about, and the sections after it explain how to use it.
In short: There is no single best city in Russia for MBBS; there is a best city for your budget, your tolerance for cold and your route home. The strongest FMGE records among cities with large groups of candidates are Orenburg (38.6% of 1,460 in 2022 to 2025), Nizhny Novgorod (36.9% of 667), Smolensk (35.4% of 2,434) and Kazan (31.9% of 1,656), against about 25% for Russia overall. Winters range from +1.0 °C in January in Makhachkala to −17.5 °C in Tomsk. Four cities have airports closed since February 2022, and two border cities, Kursk and Belgorod, carry an Embassy advisory.
Medical colleges in Russia by city: 43 cities compared
Click a column to sort. Open a city to see its universities, fees, weather, route from Kerala, cost of living and safety. Where a city page is not yet published, the link will work as soon as it is.
| City | Universities on this site | January mean, °C | Airport | From Moscow, km | FMGE 2022–25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moscow | 4 | −6.2 | Operating | – | 26.8% 114/425 |
| Saint Petersburg | 3 | −5.0 | Operating | 630 | 3.7% 14/377 |
| Kazan | 2 | −10.0 | Operating | 720 | 31.9% 529/1656 |
| Ufa | 1 | −12.2 | Operating | 1160 | 27.9% 292/1045 |
| Orenburg | 1 | −11.8 | Operating | 1230 | 38.6% 564/1460 |
| Kursk | 1 | −5.9 | Closed since Feb 2022 | 460 | 21.6% 369/1706 |
| Belgorod | 1 | −6.1 | Closed since Feb 2022 | 580 | 12.1% 50/414 |
| Tver | 1 | −7.0 | No passenger flights | 160 | 17.2% 319/1854 |
| Volgograd | 1 | −5.7 | Operating | 910 | 17.0% 376/2209 |
| Perm | 1 | −12.5 | Operating | 1150 | 27.7% 716/2588 |
| Samara | 1 | −9.6 | Operating | 850 | – 28 candidates |
| Smolensk | 1 | −5.8 | No passenger flights | 370 | 35.4% 861/2434 |
| Kemerovo | 1 | −17.3 | Operating | 2990 | 32.8% 66/201 |
| Barnaul | 1 | −16.2 | Operating | 2930 | 23.7% 191/807 |
| Novosibirsk | 2 | −17.0 | Operating | 2810 | – |
| Tomsk | 1 | −17.5 | Operating | 2880 | 30.4% 63/207 |
| Krasnoyarsk | 1 | −15.6 | Operating | 3350 | – |
| Omsk | 1 | −16.9 | Operating | 2240 | – 9 candidates |
| Yekaterinburg | 1 | −12.6 | Operating | 1420 | – |
| Chelyabinsk | 1 | −14.9 | Operating | 1490 | – |
| Tyumen | 1 | −15.1 | Operating | 1710 | – 16 candidates |
| Izhevsk | 1 | −12.1 | Operating | 970 | – 71 candidates |
| Kirov | 1 | −11.5 | Operating | 790 | – |
| Arkhangelsk | 1 | −11.6 | Operating | 990 | 22.5% 598/2654 |
| Petrozavodsk | 1 | −8.4 | Operating | 700 | – 4 candidates |
| Yoshkar-Ola | 1 | −10.5 | Suspended since Sep 2023 | 640 | 28.2% 730/2586 |
| Cheboksary | 1 | −10.0 | Operating | 600 | 27.7% 73/264 |
| Ulyanovsk | 1 | −9.8 | Operating | 700 | 27.6% 296/1072 |
| Saratov | 1 | −7.6 | Operating | 730 | 18.3% 50/273 |
| Penza | 1 | −8.6 | Operating | 560 | 30.2% 307/1017 |
| Astrakhan | 1 | −3.6 | Operating | 1270 | – 96 candidates |
| Nizhny Novgorod | 1 | −8.6 | Operating | 400 | 36.9% 246/667 |
| Yaroslavl | 1 | −12.0 | Operating, no Moscow route found | 250 | – 19 candidates |
| Ivanovo | 1 | −8.7 | Operating, no Moscow route found | 250 | 12.3% 14/114 |
| Ryazan | 1 | −7.4 | No passenger flights | 180 | 19.1% 34/178 |
| Tambov | 1 | −7.5 | Operating | 420 | 27.4% 259/945 |
| Voronezh | 1 | −6.0 | Closed since Feb 2022 | 470 | 19.1% 120/629 |
| Rostov-on-Don | 1 | −3.0 | Closed since Feb 2022 | 960 | 14.5% 62/427 |
| Stavropol | 1 | −2.3 | Operating, periodic restrictions | 1230 | 13.0% 340/2612 |
| Kaliningrad | 1 | −1.2 | Operating | 1090 | 49.3% 73/148 |
| Nalchik | 1 | −1.8 | Operating, periodic restrictions | 1430 | 25.5% 261/1024 |
| Vladikavkaz | 1 | −1.7 | Operating, periodic restrictions | 1500 | 22.4% 123/550 |
| Makhachkala | 1 | +1.0 | Operating, periodic restrictions | 1590 | 11.7% 43/366 |
Two things in the table need care. First, the FMGE column pools every university on this site in that city, so a city with one large university is judged on that university alone. Second, a missing FMGE figure does not mean a poor result: it means NBEMS reports fewer than 100 candidates from the city's universities, which usually means the Indian group is small or recent. The fees of every university are on the fees page and the full FMGE tables on the FMGE pass rate page.
Where the cities are
Most of the cities lie in European Russia west of the Urals, between Kaliningrad on the Baltic and Perm. A smaller group lies in Siberia, 2,200 to 3,400 km from Moscow, and a third group in the south, including the three North Caucasus capitals of Nalchik, Vladikavkaz and Makhachkala. Moscow is the reference point for every distance and flight time in the table. See also the list of all 54 universities.
How to choose a city for a Kerala student
Choose the city in this order. The order matters, because the earlier questions rule cities out before the later ones start to compare them.
Budget
First-year tuition in our list runs from ₹2.4 lakh to ₹14.1 lakh, with a median of ₹4.4 lakh. Moscow is at the top of the range and has the highest cost of living. Volga and Ural cities such as Kazan, Ufa and Perm sit in the middle, and the smaller cities are lower. Add hostel, food, insurance and the winter clothing in year one; the cost of living in Russia page compares them.
FMGE evidence
A Russian degree only becomes a licence in India after FMGE. Look at how many graduates from the city sat the exam and how many passed. Large groups with results above the Russian average include Orenburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Smolensk, Kazan, Penza (30.2% of 1,017), Yoshkar-Ola (28.2% of 2,586) and Perm (27.7% of 2,588). Large groups below it include Volgograd (17.0%), Tver (17.2%) and Stavropol (13.0%). Saint Petersburg's three universities passed 14 of 377 (3.7%).
Winter
The January mean is −6.2 °C in Moscow, −10.0 °C in Kazan, −12.5 °C in Perm and −17.3 °C in Kemerovo. Whatever the city, you need a proper jacket and boots; the difference is how long and how deep the cold is. Our winter packing list covers the first suitcase.
Route from Kerala
There is no direct flight from Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram or Kozhikode to Russia, so every student changes in a Gulf hub or Delhi and lands in Moscow or, for some cities, elsewhere. Then the question is how far it is to your city and whether the local airport works. Check the next section before you book anything.
Safety and regions
Border regions and the North Caucasus need a closer look, described below. In every city, ask the university in writing about hostel security, insurance and who parents can call.
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Cities with closed or restricted airports
Since 24 February 2022 the airports of Kursk, Belgorod, Voronezh and Rostov-on-Don have been closed to civil flights, and we found no reopening date in sources up to September 2026. Students for those cities fly to Moscow and take a train: about 5.5 hours to Kursk by Lastochka, about 7.3 hours to Belgorod and 6.5 to 8 hours to Voronezh. For Rostov-on-Don, Krasnodar (reopened on 11 September 2025 with daytime-only limits) and Mineralnye Vody are the nearest working airports, followed by a train or bus.
Three cities have no scheduled passenger flights at all: Tver, Smolensk and Ryazan. All three are within reach of Moscow by train, from about 1 h 15 min for Tver to about 4 hours for Smolensk, so this is a minor point. Yoshkar-Ola has had its flights halted since 29 September 2023 for runway reconstruction; its regional head said on 1 July 2026 that regular service would resume by the end of 2027, and students use Cheboksary or Kazan meanwhile. Stavropol, Nalchik, Vladikavkaz and Makhachkala have working airports with short, periodic Rosaviatsia restrictions.
The wider point is that in 2026 even open airports see delays. Media reports describe temporary suspensions at all four Moscow airports during drone alerts in June, August, September and October 2026, and at airports such as Volgograd. Keep a day's buffer on your first trip and avoid a non-refundable final ticket.
Border regions and the North Caucasus
In August 2024 the Embassy of India in Moscow advised Indian nationals in the Bryansk, Belgorod and Kursk regions to take precautions and temporarily move out. Both Kursk and Belgorod have a medical university on this site, and their city pages start with that advisory and with what is known about drone attacks. The pages also set out the questions to put to the university in writing. Kursk's fee is among the lowest we have read, but a low fee is not a reason to accept a risk the family does not want, and Belgorod's FMGE record is among the weakest on our list.
Nalchik, Vladikavkaz and Makhachkala are the capitals of Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia-Alania and Dagestan, in the North Caucasus. Their January means are mild (−1.8 °C, −1.7 °C and +1.0 °C), but their airports have had periodic restrictions, and we advise checking the current travel advisory at mea.gov.in before considering them. The same applies to Rostov-on-Don and Stavropol in the south, where airports are closed or restricted. Read the general guide is MBBS in Russia safe, and register with the Indian Embassy in Moscow after arrival wherever you go.
Winter by city
The January mean from the same climate tables gives four rough groups. The mildest are Makhachkala (+1.0 °C), Kaliningrad (−1.2 °C), Vladikavkaz (−1.7 °C), Nalchik (−1.8 °C), Stavropol (−2.3 °C), Rostov-on-Don (−3.0 °C) and Astrakhan (−3.6 °C). A middle group around −5 to −8 °C includes Saint Petersburg (−5.0 °C), Volgograd (−5.7 °C), Smolensk (−5.8 °C), Kursk (−5.9 °C), Moscow (−6.2 °C), Tver (−7.0 °C) and Tambov (−7.5 °C). A colder group of −9.5 to −12.5 °C includes Samara, Kazan, Orenburg, Ufa and Perm. The coldest, below −15 °C, are Tyumen, Barnaul, Krasnoyarsk, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Kemerovo and Tomsk, and Tomsk is the lowest at −17.5 °C.
These are monthly means, not the lowest temperatures of the winter. In every group, buildings, hostels and public transport are heated; the cost is clothing and the effort of walking outdoors, not life indoors. A Kerala student has an easier first winter in a city with a mild January, but weigh that against the fee, the FMGE record and the safety facts above.
Time difference and distance from Kerala
Moscow time is 2.5 hours behind India, and every city in the Moscow time zone shares that gap. Samara, Ulyanovsk, Astrakhan, Saratov and Izhevsk are one hour ahead of Moscow, so 1.5 hours behind India. The Ural cities such as Ufa, Orenburg, Perm and Yekaterinburg are only 30 minutes behind India. Siberian cities such as Kemerovo and Barnaul are 1.5 hours ahead of India. For a parent, the Ural time zone makes a daily call easiest. For the student, the practical limit is the length of the trip home: Siberian cities add three and a half to four and a half hours of flying after Moscow.
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Best Cities in Russia for MBBS: Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the best city in Russia for MBBS?
No city is best for everyone. Cities with large groups and FMGE results well above the Russian average, such as Orenburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Smolensk and Kazan, are good starting points. Then check the fee, winter and route from Kerala against your own situation.
Which Russian city has the mildest winter for medical students?
Among the cities on this site, Makhachkala has the highest January mean (+1.0 °C), followed by Kaliningrad (−1.2 °C), Vladikavkaz and Nalchik. Makhachkala, Vladikavkaz and Nalchik are in the North Caucasus, so check the travel advisory first. Rostov-on-Don and Astrakhan are also mild.
Which cities have closed airports?
Kursk, Belgorod, Voronezh and Rostov-on-Don have had airports closed to civil flights since 24 February 2022. Tver, Smolensk and Ryazan have no passenger flights, and Yoshkar-Ola's flights are suspended. Students reach these cities by train from Moscow or from a nearby airport.
Is Moscow a good city to study MBBS for Indian students?
Moscow is the easiest to reach and has the Embassy of India, but it has the highest fees and cost of living. First-year tuition at the Moscow universities we could read is about ₹11.3 to ₹14.2 lakh. For a family at a middle budget, Volga and Ural cities usually fit better.
How many medical universities are there in these cities?
This site covers 54 universities in 43 cities. Moscow has four, Saint Petersburg three, Kazan and Novosibirsk two each, and the other cities one each.
Are there Indian students in every city?
Not in equal numbers. The number of FMGE candidates is the best public indicator: Perm, Yoshkar-Ola, Stavropol and Arkhangelsk each had more than 2,500 candidates in 2022 to 2025, while some cities had fewer than 100. Ask each university for the current number of Indian students.
Sources: city climate (mostly 1991–2020), population and airport status from Wikipedia and Russian aviation press (to September 2026); Embassy of India in Moscow advisory of August 2024 (All India Radio, 14 August 2024); media reports on airport restrictions, 2026; NBEMS FMGE reports 2022 to December 2025; university price lists and orders as listed on each university page; Central Bank of Russia rate of 15 October 2026.