I have a few Russian friends friended here, and one too a look for me at the random Russians friending me on LJ -- she thought it might be some sort of serial added/spammer of sorts. But yes, it has gotten more tailored, as far as friending your friends and having matching interests.
So, my solution has been this: friend them back, but with
sexytime_borat for the lulz, and comment with some randomly copied Russian text out of their journal. Or talk about Kazakhstan, either/or. ;D