The Motherland may be suffering from runaway inflation, alcoholism, strangling red tape and a host of other afflictions, but this hasn’t stopped foreigners from queuing up for their Russian visas.

“Russia got in my blood and now I’m infected,” admits Tony Dalton, an accountant with a western company based in St. Petersburg. “It’s the last place on Earth where I imagined myself calling home, but here I am,” he says with a laugh.

Dalton represents a small but dedicated number of foreign “expats” who originally came to Russia on a “temporary basis,” only to find themselves still slogging away years later.

Sam Gerrans is Director of International Projects in a strategic communications agency and has called Russia home for 13 years.

Gerrans, who speaks fluent Russian, says that Russia’s atmosphere of “lively social interaction” is one of his main reasons for staying here.

Moscow, Pushkinskaya square“Russians haven’t lost the art of conversation,” he said. “They don’t mind a heated debate. It’s okay to disagree here, to take original positions on things.”

“This is a generalization, but in the West overall – and certainly in the UK – people don’t want to offend each other or be seen to go off the reservation of what they think other people will find acceptable,” Gerrans says.

“People in the West tend to self-censure and stick to unremarkable views on “safe” subjects.”

Dalton somewhat echoed that view, describing the streets of the Russia’s “northern capital” as “electrified” with energy day and night.

“Everywhere you turn in St. Petersburg there is something happening,” he said. “There is such energy in the air – electrified is the best way I can describe it – people are not sitting in their bedrooms chatting with their friends over Facebook or Twitter. They still gather in groups and hammer out ideas, and this seems extremely healthy from my point of view.”

Saint-Petersburg, Isakievskiy cathedral

Dalton then alluded to the general feeling of safety that he feels in Russian cities.

“I have been all over Russia – Kazan, Moscow, Bryansk even Vladivostok – and I have never feared for my safety, not once,” he said. “The lack of handguns may be part of the reason, but it seems to go much deeper than that."

“For whatever reason,” Dalton says, “Russians aren’t experiencing an epidemic of lunatics declaring hunting season on their fellow citizens.”

Andrew Hardisty, an engineer who is also the chair of Democrats Abroad, a US political organization that assists overseas Americans with the voting process, has been living in the Russian capital for almost 12 years and points to the “convenience” of living in Moscow as a big reason for sticking around.

“Personally, I really appreciate the convenience of Moscow living,” Hardisty says. “I’ve never really missed driving a car because the transportation system here is so pedestrian friendly. The trains in the metro run approximately every 2-3 minutes and you can get across town in about one hour. I figure I save about two thousand dollars every month by not owning a car.”

Moscow, Taganskaya square“If I miss being stuck in traffic jams,” Hardisty says, “I can always flag a “gypsy cab” for a few hundred rubles to get to my destination.”

Although the ongoing financial crisis has forced some expats to flee Russia for greener fields, many have decided to renew their Russian visas for reasons that sometimes go beyond the purely pecuniary.

“Russian women are simply gorgeous,” says Tim Hall, an IT specialist from Seattle, Washington who lost his job in January. “I’ve been across Europe and I must say that I never expected anything like this.”

Hall, who took advantage of his sudden unemployment to “grab his backpack and hike Europe,” admits that his perceptions of Russia were totally misguided.

“I can see now that our media has a very single-minded way of presenting this part of the world to audiences back home,” Hall told me over beers at the American Bar & Grill in the center of Moscow. “I actually loaded up on canned food and water before I departed from Paris,” Hall admitted with a laugh, “because I thought I would have problems finding stuff here.”

Instead, Hall is experiencing a different sort of dilemma since he unwittingly stumbled upon his “Russian soul mate.”

“Look, starting another relationship was definitely not what I had in mind when I ventured on this trip,” he says, with something close to despair in his voice. “But suddenly, there she was, and now I really don’t know what the (expletive) to do.”

Hall said he may be forced to extend his present one-month tourist visa for a three-month visa since “things have taken an unexpected turn.”

“She’s from some place called Ufa,” Hall says with a shrug. “I never dreamt in a million years that a gorgeous girl could come from a place called 'Ufa.' And now she wants me to meet her parents. I really don’t know what to do.”

What about those provincial outskirts?

Okay, so it is pretty much understood that life in the big Russian cities, like St. Petersburg and Moscow, is looking up, but what about those easily forgotten provincial towns? How are they doing?

Here is an email sent to the RT offices by one Mike Buchan who has been residing in the city of Ufa (no relation to the gentleman mentioned above whose girlfriend hails from the same city):

"I first came to Togliatti in December 2000 and stayed until June 2002," Buchan writes, "and I loved that small city! I then returned to Russia in April 2003 to Ufa and have lived here since."

Here's what he has to say about Ufa: "Within a 15-minute walk, we have three supermarkets, one special Indian spice shop, 20 of the best cafes and bistros, 10 international restaurants, two concert halls, two movie houses that show 14 different films, two drama theaters, five major universities and a night club that is rated as one of the best of all eastern Europe."

Buchan, who had no kind words for the Russian capital, also mentioned a new IKEA store going up next to a Metro 'big box' on the outskirts of Ufa.

So judging by this one letter, expats are not only attracted to the super gravitational pull of Russia's two leading metropolises, St. Pete's and Moscow.

Despite bad economy, foreigners still coming

Moscow, Bolotnaya square

According to the last Russian census, conducted in 2002, there were just under 120,000 foreigners living and working in Russia. This number does not include the citizens of the former Soviet republics, of which there were about 1 million individuals listed.

Ksenia Zemskova, a PR assistant with IntelService, a travel agency based in Moscow, told RT that the number of foreigners – both for business or pleasure – has not significantly fallen during the crisis.

“We have not really witnessed a significant drop in the number of people coming to Russia,” Zemskova says. “Foreigners are still arriving to Russia in big numbers.”

Actually, the present cloud of financial crisis may even carry a silver lining, as Moscow’s notoriously expensive hotels are beginning to lower their prices, Zemskova said.

“Although the drop in the number of foreigners coming to Russia is rather negligible,” Zemskova says, “visitors are spending less on services, such as accommodations, excursions and entertainment. But on the bright side, the four- and five-star hotels are gradually reducing their prices to attract sales.”

But for the average long-term expat who continues to call Russia "home sweet home," the price for a night at a fancy five-star hotel is not a consideration since they already rent or own their own flats. Besides, ‘experiencing Russia’ from the window of a hotel or tour bus would just not cut it for Russia’s long-term foreign residents.

Indeed, for the foreigners who have made peace with the unpredictable bear known as Russia, the unpredictability of this vast land is part and parcel of what keeps them returning year after year.

“Russia is refreshingly unpredictable,” says Gerrans. “A place that gives you new and valuable insights.”

Robert Bridge, RT