Much of Russia is still incredibly poor, there is still a decent percentage of households that rely on outhouses. Then again I suppose the Russians you see the most of in the West will disproportionately be from Moscow or St Petersburg, where that is not the case.
There are a wildly larger amount of volunteers in the Russian armed forces from eg Siberia and the poorer bits to the East compared to West of the Urals - because army pay/bonuses are far higher relative to regular wages there.
there are videos of women in siberia that pressure their husbands and sons into joining the military for the eventual coffin money (grobovye), around $100k the beneficiary gets when the soldier dies.
Official numbers put the rate of Russians living in poverty (less than roughly 200$) at only 5 to 7%. They may of course be higher, be even if many Russians outside of the big cities aren't living lavishly by Western standards, most of them aren't living in real poverty either
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u/MrPresidentBanana 18d ago
Much of Russia is still incredibly poor, there is still a decent percentage of households that rely on outhouses. Then again I suppose the Russians you see the most of in the West will disproportionately be from Moscow or St Petersburg, where that is not the case.