Gut feeling is not the best thing to rely on in these situations, because there is a chance of jumping into a prejudice. It all depends on a large number of factors which you have to understand before making any conclusions
I will not go proactively into explaining why, but I will be happy to provide you with some resources if you are interested to dive in deeper into this topic
Bunch of nonsense, which ignores the fact of crippled trust and hostility in a psychologically crippled post-communist society. What does “cultural difference” mean? If you dig a bit of history in the last 110 years in Russia and have a basic understanding of psychology - you can easily answer why people don’t smile in Russia.