I lived with a Russian family a few years ago for a month in one of the ten largest cities in Russia. As an American, I found many aspects of their society to be rather hostile, but I found at least one region to be a beautiful area of the country with interesting, warm, and dare I say _happy_ people. I think many of us can trivially find reasons that the state of Russia is less than ideal, but the way you describe it is a bit off the mark.
The country is incredibly beautiful and the Russian people incredibly resourceful considering the living conditions. Another trait of Russians is the importance of status and pride which results that we tend to keep face even though the conditions we live in aren't reflective of the lifestyle we try to portray. I was born in Russia and have lived there for a large portion of my life. While my direct family was relatively well off we've had our fair share of misery in the family. To get back on point, whenever we had visitors my parents would prepare the best meals even though there was a scarcity of food, but being hospitable to guests was more important than the possibility of not having food for the rest of the week. My point is that visiting Russia can be a distorted experience compared to actually 'living' there.
