I believe that although the YAK 52 is a complex airplane, the parts are very inexpensive (relatively) which is why the maintenance cost may be low.
Even if the parts are low cost, the fact that the airplane is complex and high performance is enough to drive the labor costs up through the roof. How many Yaks do you see on your ramp? Local mechanics, even if they agree to work on them, would have to get the tech data ($$$) and then you'll pay their increased labor cost as they do OJT on your airplane. The nice thing about a 150 (or any Cessna) is there's a gajillion of them out there and every GA mechanic out there has worked on them. I'd love to have the cash to own a Yak or CJ and the additional bucks to operate one but then I'd probably go with a 177 RG before I bought Russian/Chinese and I'd dare say the overall maintenance costs would be less. The cost of acquisition for one of these east block airplanes is probably the lowest cost of ownership and compared to something like a T-6 or T-34 (except for the wing problems), they probably are economical, but compared to a 150....get real.
