That's a ridiculous claim.
In the Soviet Union as in many of the formerly Eastern block countries, their problems are huge. However, they enjoy far more liberties and countries like Poland, enjoy a far better (though still way below ours) standard of living.
I have met countless people from that area of the world and have gotten to know some of them very well. While they all acknowledge great difficulties in their respective countries, they say it was far worse when they were children and young adults under the old regime.
Things have reached a level, perhaps, between the two but the fact that New Russians can be as decadent as their Western enlightened counterparts is not really a ringing endorsement of the "saving graces of western materialism."
I wanted very much to see that things had changed -- it's one reason I went to Russia. A fresh coat of paint and state sanction of the newly-canonized Romanovs doesn't quite cut it for me.