White hair is cool but I agree with Sailus. Authors that do that don't have the mental capacity to understand that Russian people do not fuck the snow. And no, in mother Russia, the snow doesn't fuck you either.
People don't understand that Russia isn't Iceland, Norway, Finland, or Sweden. The most common hair color in Russia are shades of dark brown. But even if a person has blonde hair, it's usually dirty blonde.
@Agentt that is annoying but it at least has some historical context to back it up. Though it's the same in a lot of other countries too. The hair color thing is just plain wrong.
Anime Russians got white hair not for any historical reason, but because manga/Light Novel illustrations are usually inked BnW, and since local characters are already dark haired, the only way they could differentiate foreigners is by giving them contrast. Hence, the White Haired Russian troupe.
Seriously though, while I do encourage critical thinking, sometimes the solution is the most brain-dead one.