Soldato
You have to think though. Majority of people who Bald etc speak to are not generally better off for the fall of the soviet union, I guess there will be an element of "rose tinted specs" to the situation however not everyone benefited from the situation.Every single person I know from a former Soviet country absolutely hated it and communism as a whole.
Most people I have met and know from the old soviet states are now in a much much better position, but those are people that have had the social mobility to move over to the UK/western europe. Not the people who are stuck in their old village scraping by with no services, dwindling economy and little to no prospect of improving their situation.