Back on the original subject. I've been living and travelling in Russia for the last 18 months, and I think it's quite an expensive place to live. I'm here on a western european salary, but the supermarkets and restaurants are at western prices !

St Petersburg's probably the cheapest of the places I've been, certainly cheaper than Moscow and also, perhaps surprisingly, cheaper than say Krasnoyarsk. Maybe it's because St P is the first port of call for foreign imported goods.