Originally Posted by RevenueLab

They are not grumpy. Smiling for no reason is not polite, it's hypocrisy when someone smiles out of politness and asking you like "hi how are you" while you don't really care. there are hundreds of places where smiling in the public is very rare, not only Russia.
They smile only to their friends and close people. once you make a Russian friend you gonna be sure this is the best friend ever, because when they ask "how are you" - they really care and willing to help you out if something is wrong.

I''m not telling this is good and this is bad, it's just the matter of culture and mentality