baybal2 could probably answer better (I think he's from the Far East), but not everyone had access to mass housing - especially in rural villages like the one in the video.
On top of that, in the older USSR days, there was an internal passport system (which the modern version of the Chinese Hukou is based on) that made it difficult to move internally. This meant if you and your family decided to migrate to the city because collective farming life sucked without permission, you wouldn't be eligible for urban benefits like a Brezhnevka.
This is a major reason why Putin has historically been so popular among rural and poorer Russians - they saw their QoL increase drastically over the past 30 years, but those who were urban, intelligentsia, or skilled workers by the 1970s-80s saw their QoL drop drastically in the 90s and 2000s.
This only makes the current war that started in 2014 even dumber, because Russia was right on the precipice of becoming a "Developed Country" (WB Advanced Economy and HDI above 0.850) before it initiated the 2014 war and was subsequently sanctioned.
Not sure about this.
US had been meddling with Russia using Ukraine as base, and the 2014 ousting of the Ukraine Prez at the time was only made worse by the US and EU flaming the issue.
Not saying the war was necessary, but given the large number of times US has been involved in regime changes of various countries (using this Modus Operandi of supporting protesters), taking back control of a region they used to govern (as USSR) is not something absurd to consider.
If the goal is to go around recovering former territories, there's a "Russian River" in California just waiting for its own SMO: Славянка наша?
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Рашен-Ривер
Ne valyay duraka, ax, Rossiya!
Za moryami skuchayesh, podi...
Shto Sibir', shto Alyaska – dva berega:
Baby, koni, razdol'ye v puti. (2x)and Cambodia, Iraq, Vietnam, Cuba, and 50 other known instances with more than a few of them in this decade itself.
Given how good the US is at the sort of foreign meddling, and that supporting protesters hasn't ever worked in reversing regime-change (unless it was an extremely unstable country), taking control of a territory that US is using for it's operations isn't an invalid move, geopolitically speaking.
>there's a "Russian River" in California just waiting for its own SMO: Славянка наша?
Lol. I'm not at all disagreeing with the ideological basis in your point, but Russia's wanted Ukraine for a long time, and US using Ukraine as a frontline provided a convenient excuse.