Keeping in mind that the sample space was small (only 48 companies) and that the workers were not all involved in IT and business process outsourcing (BPO) delivery to U.S.-based multinationals, the study is still worthwhile for portraying a technical workforce that, even back in 2004, was fairly mature.

This highlights one of the advantages of Russia and Eastern/Central Europe in general.

Whether you're talking engineering, IT, or BPO, workers in these regions tend to be older, to have longer tenure in their positions and, if you believe what Line56 heard in Moscow a few years back, more skilled pound-for-pound in terms of hard science backgrounds.

India, meanwhile, has the advantages of sheer numbers, lower wages, and a more developed IT/BPO infrastructure (thanks to over a decade of heavy investment by the Indian government, Indian companies themselves, and multinationals like IBM eager to develop India-based service delivery).

India also has an IT/BPO metropolis in Bangalore the likes of which doesn't exist anywhere in Russia.

In one sense, it's no wonder that Russian tech workers have spent longer at their jobs, because the average Russian is over 38 years old.

The average Indian is, by comparison, 24. Russians, taken as a demographic mass, have simply had longer to gain education and experience in their fields.

This means that, for certain kinds of outsourcing jobs and in limited deployment contexts, Russia may bring more to the table than in India.

Source: Line 56