I, and I assume most people, don't think of Russia as a "developing country" in the common usage at all, at least in the common usage of the term. I see China as a more complex case, but I wouldn't feel comfortable using it as a general example of one because of this same complexity.

As such, your using them as examples or counter examples of developing countries is confusing (at least to me), and I think is misinterpreting the meaning of the original statement.

>As such, your using them as examples or counter examples of developing countries is confusing (at least to me), and I think is misinterpreting the meaning of the original statement.

Indeed. Me coming back to Russia was nowhere near a typical "downshifting" case. If I were to compete with locals on the job market, I wouldn't have lasted long. People who can ace ACM olympics prequalification tests are only passing as junior devs here.