@thor As a Russian, I can confirm, it's 100% true. Some people here say that they need comrade Stalin to fix all this, and you are always like: "No, guys, you don't! It doesn't work like that!"
But it's not like they get what they deserve per se. It's a self-sustaining system: poverty → bad food, bad jobs → they don't feel well most of the time, they just follow their routine and can't take a step back and realize what their problem is.