I lived in Vladivostok a couple of times on a monthly basis. Once out of those three times it flooded. The following year the municipal authorities miscalculated and significantly reduced the level in the city reservoirs...and got a drought. By no means does it 'experience biblical floods' every Spring and Summer. In fact, the annual precipitation in Vladivostok - okay, it's not Yakutsk, which admittedly I have not visited, but it is the capital of the Primorskye Region so I believe it qualifies as representative - at 655.3mm average annual, is about half what it is in Nova Scotia (1181mm average annual) where I grew up; I can bear witness it is not a gaseous swamp, and has not been since Pleistocene times.
"The Kremlin further promises to modernize the city, having recently announced plans to turn it into a free port that could be accessed freely without visas. The strategy is expected to boost trade and drive local development independently from federal funding in the long term. Once again, Vladivostok is expected to rise from the ashes and restore the century-old Tsarist vision in the 21st century.
These efforts have been paying off so far. Vladivostok boasts the region’s largest fertility rate growth and has seen the lowest outflow of people to central Russia over the past 20 years. The city’s streets are now bursting with expensive shops and cars, with restaurants’ prices surpassing those of Moscow."