Poverty, bad infrastructure, endemic alcoholism, drug problems...

In larger cities it's actually pretty nice, though. Really any town with 250,000 people or more will have a lot of nice restaurants, stores, theaters, cinemas, etc. Moscow is over the top expensive. I was shopping there with a girlfriend back in 2006 and there was a street near the Kremlin with a huge arch with a giant chandelier hung over it, and on either side were high end fashion stores, with a Ferrari dealership at the end of the block. $500 for a dinner for two was nothing out of the ordinary.