[kilroy123]

I always thought it was because smart people who will become good programmers are guaranteed to get a nice cushy job. (In the US) In Eastern Europe and especially in Russia that isn't the case. Great cushy jobs are hard to come by.

However, there's virtually unlimited opportunity doing shady things or hacking for profit. I once even talked to a Russian developer about this in great length. He came to the US for one such cushy job. I was pretty shocked about how freely he talked about past "shady" jobs. He told me, yes he _could_ make more money but he also didn't like being so unethical. So he came here to be "legit".