[note: I'm writing this from the perspective of Moscow and Russia 10 years ago] Basically, Moscow has (had?) everything that op mentioned - cheap gas, cheap (and fast) Internet, relatively cheap and quality medicine, huge variety of food delivery (very fast and quite cheap), etc. On top of that Moscow has an incredible subway system, multiple car sharing options, it is clean and relatively safe. I've traveled a lot and lived in multiple countries during my life, and the services they had in Moscow were better than i.e. in Germany or Singapore. Having said that I don't miss Moscow a little bit. Everything comes with a cost and the price of living standards in Moscow is being paid by the rest of Russia.