Asking: Baltic cities & living in Saint Petersburg

[Wckoek]

A Russian friend of mine school me about how Saint Petersburg is the best city to live in Russia, with it's cultural diversity, living standard, cost et cetera.


So I look around the region, and there are quite a few fine destination for travel and living within the Baltic sea region: Gdansk of Poland, Kaliningrad; Klaipeda of Lithuania, Stockholm of Sweden, Riga of Latvia, Tallinn of Estonia, Helsinski of Finland and of course Saint Petersburg.
I don't read much about outside visitors that sail along the Baltic sea, maybe because it wasn't on the circumnavigation route, I can only think of Arthur Ransome wrote a book about cruising there when he was still living in the region.


Saint Petersburg seemed like a cheaper place to live in within the region and I might consider to travel, live and cruise in the region.


Can anyone tell me if there is any pitfalls or challenge one might encounter living in Russia as a foreigner?
Or if there are other cities in the region better to live in?