Most of the Russians who come here dive with Russian staff, so my main contact with them is while everybody is setting up their gear. When there are more than a couple of Russians aboard, I quickly grab all the weight blocks I think my divers and I will need before they all end up on the Russians' weight belts. Once when I was doing the CESA skill on an OW training dive, they took even the few weights that were attached to the CESA buoy we use. We had to tie a huge ship's wrench from the engine room to the line to anchor it down. Maybe they're all overweighted by habit from being used to cold-water diving in drysuits? If they are, it makes sense that they can't stay up off the reef.
Not really. I'm basing this on the ones I saw In Egypt who took their courses there as well!!!!