Ah! 😅 But you never know, I sometimes encounter the most weird statements about Russia.

…or maybe I just can’t detect the sarcasm:)

So, I recently visited the country for personal reasons, and I can share some insights.

Salaries in Russia are lower than in most of the EU, and vary a lot between big cities and rural areas. Rural people are forced to survive with meager incomes of perhaps 400€ per month, a more decent salary but still normal in a city like Saint Petersburg would be some 1000-1200€ (for reference a fast food worker may have an income of 700-1000€), and ofc rich people are rich as in every capitalist country.

First and foremost: housing and rent. Rent and housing are expensive in Russia if you live in the two big metropolitan areas of Moscow and Saint Petersburg. We’re talking price-to-income rates a bit better than what I see in Madrid or Baecelona, but still very much hostile to most people. It’s not as bad as in Spain yet because the Soviets built a lot of housing and when the USSR was dismantled, the housing was given to the tenants who inhabited them (previously they were of public rent), so you see a lot of mixture of different incomes in expensive areas because a lot of people still own the apartment from back in 1991, or they inherited it from their parents. Maybe you can rent a small flat on the outskirts of Saint Petersburg or Moscow starting at 500€, likely 600+€ if you look for something that’s not a very old and poorly maintained soviet apartment.

There are plenty of cities in Russia where housing is a lot more affordable. For example, in Tyumyen, you can rent a one-room apartment for the equivalent of 250-350€ in Rubles. The issue is that in Russia salaries are very significantly lower in such regions unless you work in a very established field such as oil extraction or a strong industry. Even public salaries change dramatically, with a teacher easily earning twice as much in Moscow as in a smaller city far from Moscow such as Ryazan. Housing is however less of a burden because of the abundant housing stock from Soviet times, and because when all the state industry was dismantled during the transition to capitalism, those regions were left with a lot worse infrastructure and less job opportunities than they used to have, so there’s plenty of housing and not much in terms of job oportunities, which drives prices down.

Food prices are also an interesting topic. Basic foodstuffs such as grains (buckwheat, oat, barley) are super cheap and you can get them for like 0.5€/kg at cheap supermarkets. Also some vegetables are affordable such as carrots, cabbage or onion, and root vegetables such as beets are also a cheap staple. Potatoes, likely due to sanctions, suffered a shortage some time ago and their prices rose to twice or three times the price, which caused a lot of unhappiness because it’s a staple food there. Dairy products have also inflated over the past years, and they’re similarly priced to what they are in EU countries, roughly 90 cents to 1€ for a liter of milk, butter being a bit more expensive than in the EU…

Other more “luxurious” vegetables and fruits (for Russian climate at least) like bell peppers, tomatoes, strawberries, peaches etc. have also risen very fast over the past few years, again likely due to sanctions. Russia gets a lot of such fresh produce from Uzbekistan due to its good climate for these goods, and now with it being one of the only suppliers due to international sanctions, prices have gone up due to insufficient supply, especially during the winter. Bell pepper costs 4€/kg, tomatoes maybe slightly less, and strawberries have been up to 10€/kg (more than twice what I can find them for in Spain).

Utilities remain non-expensive in general due to the abundant gas supply in Russia and the state subsidies for the gas industry, and since Russia’s gas exports have been harmed from sanctions, there’s an abundant supply inside the country, so peoples’ homes are warm, unlike we see in Europe where many people have to keep their heating off due to high gas prices (I’m writing this in Spain and my living room is currently at 13°C, my bedroom has been 9°C at some points this winter). Car fuel is also relatively affordable, much more so than in Europe.

Cars are a funny thing, because Russia used to import a lot of cars from the EU and Japan, with Toyota and Volkswagen being very popular, but nowadays with the sanctions they’re mostly importing Chinese cars, which likely paradoxically drove the car prices down.

Public transit remains affordable, with tram and metro rides costing perhaps 0.8-1€ depending on the city, and buses and trolleybuses being cheaper than that. In more rural environments, people rely a lot on minibuses (so called marshrutka) if they don’t own a car, I have no idea about the prices of those. Trains in Russia are adequately priced (think 30-40€ for a ride between Moscow and Saint Petersburg) and quite punctual to my surprise.

If you have any further questions I’ll try to answer :)