I have to say, I totally disagree, I was born in Poland, and lived there for a few years, and still spend 1 or 2 months a year there. And I have a compleate different view from yours!
Firstly, I have family and friends there who have been using the equipment and stuff for years, with many breaks and things going on! Also (long story moment) my uncle was studying to become an architect, and at one point in his studies (in the 60s) some students including him did an exchange with a Polytechnic in Moscow. Part of the stuff he was tought there was how to design factories and it included a visit to a camera factory (i think it was FED, possibly Zorki) to see the design, and the conditions and standars were awful! Later on in life my uncle also visited the Kiev Arsenal factory (in the Late 70s) and spoke to people working there who were laughing at the fact the cameras where such low quality. They knew it was really hard for them to get fired (being communism) so everybody did their jobs half-assedly (sorry for the french!)
as for the kiev 88s, my cousing had 3 of them, just so that he could keep one working! the arsat lenses where quite good, but again some suffered problems with light leeks, some layers on the glass lens could be worn/rubbed off and other bits and bobs of trouble!
though, I repeat myself, having complained about the lenses, they wearnt all rubbish, some where quite good!
also, its NOT just the lomo cameras that have trouble with light-leaks. quite a few of zorki, fed, zenit and kiev had trouble with light leaks at one point or another, because of camera designers not allways bothering to change the design of a prototype before they went into production.
I am not generalising, as this comes from many years of my (and my families) experience of russian Kameras, although what you experienced and what I have experienced with these things could be totally different!
I would like to point out, the reason that some "copy-cameras" wernt so good was because of the worse choice of cheaper materials used than the original cameras (leicas, nikons etc....)
(also, for reference, I wouldn't generalise about any camera or lens, nikon and canon have made bad equipment over the years, along with some amazing stuff!)
ooh that was a long post, I hope we can still be friends