They've probably changed a fair bit since the USSR fell, but the old communist architecture's still there, so an alien takover that smacks society back into an opressive state would probably be more visually immersive there than in many first-world cities.
I've never been to any of the former easten block counties myself. That's my admittadly academic understanding, at least. This, combined with insufficiant upkeep made eastern block cities kinda grey, harsh places, atmospherically. Mostly because it kept costs as low as possible, but they also sort of doubled it up with their own brand of Brutalism (the architectural style, google it) in an attempt to rebrand it as something artistically symbolic of progress and egalitarianism (but in reality just made it look even more bland and monolithically dehumanizing, ironically). Communist block cities heavily favored the kind of cheap, no-frills construction usually associated with housing projects/council estates in the west. If Richard Harrow is right about the reasons for choosing the setting, then it's about the architecture, not the language.
Originally posted by Scorcher24:But how does russian show a decay of society? :P
