I'm unsure about what exactly the whole 3rd world thing actually means but one thing is for sure; a huge proportion of the russian population are very poor indeed. It's a country where bribery gets you by, the press are tightly controlled by the government (a few journalists with a habbit of publishing embarassing stories have a funny habit of getting bumped off), and democracy is virtually a sham.
I'm unsure what implications all this has on Russian aviation but it can't be positive thats for sure.