You can learn more at Wiki. Basically, she is from the capital Baku. It has a Mediterranean climate -- snow was a rarity. After the USSR broke up, the Muslims started their usual ethnic cleansing and chased out the Russians and Christian Armenians. In Russia you still can't life where ever you want. So they ended up in Kazakhstan on the border with Siberia. Brrrr! That's like taking a beach girl from Miami and moving her to Fargo in the middle of the winter!