Other plans to lift Ivangorod’s fortunes have similarly stumbled, including a European Union-funded project that would have started a shuttle bus service to Narva. The project was abandoned after the Russian town demanded more than $4 million to build a bus stop, while Narva, where salaries are higher and construction materials more expensive, asked for $1 million to construct its bus shelter.

Russia’s difficulty in keeping budgets and work schedules under control has helped create the biggest, or at least most visible, difference between Ivangorod and its Estonian neighbor: the state of their infrastructure.

On the Estonian side, streets are generally clean and well-repaired, while many in Ivangorod are scarred by potholes and, in the fall, scattered with leaves and other debris. Each town has a large stock of ugly, Soviet-era apartment buildings, but while those in Ivangorod show their age, Narva’s have been given a face-lift and their grounds mostly cleared of weeds and garbage.

As each part of the sundered city went its own way after the collapse of the Soviet Union, both struggled with the same economic calamities as Soviet-era factories went bankrupt. A giant textile plant in Narva laid off more than 10,000 workers, while a printing machine plant and other manufacturers crumbled in Ivangorod.

Public discontent grew so severe that calls went out on both sides of the river for a redrawing of the border to make the city whole again. An opposition member of Ivangorod’s local council, Yuri Gordeyev, collected signatures for a petition asking that Estonia incorporate the Russian city.