As far as I have seen, Russia has extremely cold weather to live in. Hats-off to people who are still living in such a cold atmosphere with limited resources. And of course, they poses few of the best minds of the world. The minds who created Mig-21s, which were the best in the world when first built.
Climat in russia is pretty much same as in Canada. Plus Russia is a big country. So there is zones with relatively good climate. Crimea, for example =)