This is not just a post Soviet phenomenon, but one you see in many countries with some unhealthy form of socialist/nationalist semi- (or fully-)dictatorial political system - look at Syria, Egypt, Lybia, Togo, Zaire.

It also happens locally in France, where mayor or MPs try to bring in their sons, or more rarely daughters, to replace them in their elected office.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes