My wife is Russian, from Moscow. Her parents are still living there part time. Inflation is bad due to the plunging Ruble. But keep in mind that this country has had so many crises that people know how to adapt. The sanctions can be felt, but they blame the evil West, not their own leader Putin. He is actually quite popular because of the Ukraine situation. My wife hates him, thankfully.
We had dinner with a Swiss-Ukrainian couple tonight. She is from the Donetzk, right in the middle of the conflict area in Eastern Ukraine. She is of Russian decent, but has a Ukrainian passport. In these passports they are marked a being "Russian". She owns several appartements there which she is renting out, but nobody is paying rent anymore. Some have fled. The Kiew government is stationing soldiers and mercernaries at empty flats. Once one payment for energy or telephone is missed, they ceize the appartements. Since most Ukrainians fled in a hurry, Donetzk is a ghost town now. She raided her bank accounts before all hell broke lose, partially because I kept on harrassing her husband for months with the "get the f... out and take all the money with you" phrase.
The Kiew government forces are dominated by actual neonazis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azov_Battalion who are supported by Western mercanaries, including some from the US:
Who is paying these guys? Certainly not the bankrupt Kiew government...
The Russian side is paying far less and most fighters are actually Russian patriots willing to die for Putin (idiots...). They have sophisticated weaponery from the Russian military, including heavy artillery, radar, anti-air, tanks...
It's not a fair battle, the Russians are massively superior, in terms of manpower as well as equipment. And don't discount morale... The question is: where will they stop? Will they eventually go all the way to Kiew? Might NATO intervene?