Many Russians/Ukrainians/Belorussians come to ex-ussr-now-eu for shopping and medical procedures. Why? Stuff is cheaper and better quality here in Lithuania. And salaries are higher too :)
Source: Born and living in Lithuania
Fun fact, Vilnius' IKEA is built next to a highway that goes to Belorussian border. Every 5th or so plate in the parking lot is BY.
TLDR: cleptocracy sucks.
If you want to talk about cleptocracy, let's talk about US a little bit. Let's start from yellow light duration scandals (from the top of my head): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdD5fvYHtKQ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_light_camera#United_States_...
2 Circa 2004 two my parcels arrived to different post offices late and cut open. There was no valuables inside (I wasn't that naive.) Ever since I used express services (DHL, TNT, PE)
3 I heard similar stories from other people (late&open)
4 Recently I received two packages by Russian Mail. They arrived late (1 month travel time) but were not open. An improvement.
5 Still I (we) use tracking to pick a parcel as local offices don't notify receivers. They let a package bounce silently. Forewarned is forearmed.
6 Lady at the post office was very kind.
7 Before receiving my parcels I was studying a vk.com official community for computeruniverse.ru clients, which is full of horror stories and detailed official 20-step instructions on how not to get screwed.
8 The same applies to letters, unfortunately. A local letter may travel for a month (even town hall officials complain about that).
9 A letter I sent from San Francisco arrived to Yekaterinburg in about three months. Just before I arrived myself.
10 YMMV. Russia is a great country. Cheers.
2 Me and my friends and relatives had not have problems at the same time.
7 I can cite you horror stories about everything. 20 steps to eat potato and not get screwed. I think you also heard about selection bias, do you?
10 I think you had to start with YMMV instead of ending with it. Because, you know, for every anecdote you tell I have another anecdote to tell you.
Blaming memes is just lame. No good viral meme starts without a reason. Poor memes without any real reason dies way before getting popular.
What's the difference if someone is starting or ending with YMMV? It looks like nitpicking for the sake of writing bigger blob of text.
I had in mind that relying only to "statistics" from close friends and relatives skews one's view SO MUCH that one should not even apply that argument in almost any discussion.
You either try to get the whole picture of life or live in the sweet bubble.
The bubble had its own good properties - less mind energy expended, you can focus on what entertains you most. But that about all. To plan your journey through life you have to have the complete picture, or, at least, try to acquire it.
In addition, please explain how it is that the "friends and family" whose opinions you so adamantly declare are irrelevant are also living in bubbles. Are millions of people living in bubbles? Thousands? Dozens? Just me? How many exactly? I would like to hear your answer.
Or is it, perhaps, only people you don't agree with who live in "bubbles"?
To be fair, there's still a huge gap between post-ussr and western countries. But we're catching up. It takes time to fix what 50 years in ussr did. Some people want money & stuff fast, they go abroad. Other people prefer to work on rebuilding their country and/or see more business opportunities in developing market.
By the way, it's not only ex-ussrs emigrating. I heard more and more Spaniards and Greeks come to Norway to earn more :)
Or there aren't any real jobs left because EU destroyed real production left from USSR.