Well my mother thought that Russians were incredibly rude, based on her experiences accompanying my father on business trips there. (He on the other hand likes Russians - although not the "new"). She had plenty of stories to tell her friends of how rudely she felt she had been treated in restaurants, department stores and hotels among other things.

I listened to hear stories on this (happened to her in lots of places, not just Russia) growing up, and I always thought that she brought 95% of it upon herself by having unrealistic expectations, a negative outlook and not being very polite herself...

So that's a person who did not like Russians and felt they were rude and incompetent. Happy?

Seriously - I had a very good experience, like I said, in Belarus and Ukraine which both surprised me, in different ways. I am looking forward to the opportunity of an extended trip to Russia within the next few years and I'll be able to make up my own mind. Perhaps, like you say, the Ukrainians and Belarussians are actually friendlier than Russians ?! I always thought it was a very similar situation though - not much different. I'll post and let you know when I go to Russia!

I am really put off by Moscow though, and although I've never visited it, I actually don't think I'd enjoy it. I wouldn't be surprised at all to learn that people in Moscow are the least friendly and helpful in all of Russia.
Seems that today, it's like London where I currently live; only more extreme in every way. More crowded, more luxury shops and dirt poor people, traffic, super expensive prices and stressed out people.
Such a city doesn't attract me at all.

And even if some Russians are obnoxious and rude, I can name at least 5 nationalities that I really don't like to have to deal with because I think are consistently quite unpleasant to have interact with, because most of them have some very unpleasant traits. Not going to list it here, but Russians is not on that list.