This was Moscow in 2008 or 2009. They were great to Westerners -- just rough on their own.

I met some nice people at a party given by the Anglo American Society of Moscow who said it was very scary transitioning through the last two decades. They were grateful that Putin supported the arts -- the symphony and ballet etc. They were music teachers -- ex aristocrats was my guess. When Putin kept funding the symphony etc they knew they would stay. The next day they took me to the olympic site. They said the whole country was very sad when the U.S. boycotted those olympics.