The research aims to study a city as an actor in international relations. A city used to be seen as an object by researchers through the theories of paradiplomacy, global cities, and new regionalism. The research goal is to show that the city has the potential and resources for being an independent participant of international relations. To explain this process, the concept of actorness is used. The variety of approaches is shown to represent actorness as an attribute of an independent participant of international relations. Due to the absence of a universal set of parameters for the city's actorness, a new model with such factors as identity, practical goal-setting, recognition, and facts of activity, is proposed. City's actorness is considered in detail on the example of Yekaterinburg, which has implemented it in its international practices. The research base covers documents of the city council of Yekaterinburg and its departments, news reports on the city's international activities and international events, interviews with former representatives and employees of the city administration. The conclusion was made about the evolution of the city's international activities, which, while maintaining limited autonomy, is subject to close collaboration with the Sverdlovsk region.