Sadly it could actually be the reverse. The rest of the country is much poorer, so they consume less imported products... there's less to lose. Also many (from

Sadly it could actually be the reverse. The rest of the country is much poorer, so they consume less imported products... there's less to lose. Also many (from my experience at least) generally just have lower expectations... the joke is "we never used to live well, no reason to start now" (никогда хорошо не жили, нечего и начинать).