I'm an American currently living in Cyprus and have lived in a few other European countries in addition to Russia and I can say this about AC in this part of the world: A lot of Europeans and practically all Russians believe that AC is bad for your health. That is one reason that they don't use it. Another is that electricity in Europe is much more expensive than in the US and AC uses a lot of electricity. In Cyprus, I pay 0.23 Euros per kilowatt hour (down from a max of 0.28 Euros/kwhr 2 years ago). I don't use AC much at all - I have fans and I open my windows. But in August when the heat and humidity get unbearable, I will put the AC on a bit.