I am a Russian (of Jewish extraction). I grew up in Moscow and in late 2006 I moved to Ireland with my Russian wife and little child, to take up a technical writing job. Nearly 10 years later, we are both naturalized citizens, so is the child, and we now have another child who is a native-born citizen. We settled in county Limerick, close enough to the city, and I work another technical writing job. (With a multinational, which I shall not name solely because I don't want to lug a disclaimer around).
I like many things about Ireland. It is a friendly and peaceful place (I hear this can be different up North, but we are not up North). I learned to play the bodhran here, which fits me very well. I even "look the part". Also I like Irish schooling for my children much better than the Russian system which still has a lot of Soviet coercion in it. Not to mention absence of conscription, cleaner air compared to Moscow, and generally nicer economic well-being. Ireland, unlike many other Western countries, is also neutral, so I don't have to be worried about being a party to the latest abomination in the Middle East or something.
There is a downside to everything, of course, and moving to Ireland is no exception. Ireland's population (the entire island) is about a quarter of Moscow's, which leads to a much lower concentration of people with any given quirky interest. I am a LARPer (LARP = Live Action Role Playing Game) and what's going on in Ireland is very small and much less developed compared to Moscow and St.Petersburg. The same applies to my other interests like open source software. (Irish music, of course, is an exception, as it is a niche interest in Moscow but mainstream here).
I know this can be fixed by a quick flight to London. I am 30 minutes away from Shannon airport which has regular connections to three airports in London. But I can't really afford the kind of regular travel needed to join real-life UK communities. (The tickets are not the killer, the stays are).