Well, starting a thread is the last thing I feel like doing now, since I don't have that much time but I've read a comment about Russians today on another forum that said:

...no amount of oil and gas can fix Russia's problems. The oligarchy will become richer, not the people en masse... the nation is at large racist, anti-gay, and anti what not. For the most part it is an ignorant, superstitious, ultra-conservative nation.
It got me thinking, esp. in light of the thread on homosexuals... Do you think it's true? Do we need to change and become more progressive as a society? Is the Western model, say, of family life necessarily the best one? I disagree with the "ignorant" part and I don't think the majority of Russians are racist. I have met individuals who are. I was once dating a guy who saw fit to ask me on the third date about whether I could marry a "coloured" ("цветной") man. I was really shocked at this. Digging deeper I learned that he didn't have a very high opinion about people with darker skin. I was young, green, and naive and didn't know that racism still existed. I'd just read "To Kill a Mocking Bird" by Harper Lee so the mere fact that anyone should have such ideas was very strange -- like, what age are you living in, man? He wasn't exactly Russian by descent, as a matter of fact, but there are enough Russian jerks as well, so...
I do think that such individuals are rare, though. I was reading comments on the film "Slumdog Millionaire" a few days ago and the majority were very favourable except for one who said something along the lines "не хочу смотреть кино про чурок" -- what a disgusting word, that.

I have now become quite an Indophile (yes, yes, I know, у кого, что болит...) and the thing that strikes me is that they seem to have very conservative views in marriage, for example. But to me, it's a good thing -- marriage and family are considered a sacred thing there and people aren't in a hurry to get a divorce every time a little disagreement comes up. So in this respect, I think India shouldn't lose its traditions and identity. The castes, on the other hand, are def. a thing to be shed... Well, what about Russia?