To be honest i dont live there, i just quickchecked some sites and 20k$ seems very good for russia: http://www.gks.ru/wps/wcm/connect/rosstat_main/rosstat/en/f

To be honest i dont live there, i just quickchecked some sites and 20k$ seems very good for russia: http://www.gks.ru/wps/wcm/connect/rosstat_main/rosstat/en/figures/living/ http://www.gks.ru/wps/wcm/connect/rosstat_main/rosstat/en/fi... http://rbth.com/business/2016/05/20/the-average-salary-in-russia-is-now-lower-than-in-china-and-poland_594893 http://rbth.com/business/2016/05/20/the-average-salary-in-ru... http://www.tradingeconomics.com/russia/wages http://www.tradingeconomics.com/russia/wages I think the best option for you/your friend is to get contract work outside of russia.