<p>This study investigates whether Russian early-career researchers (ECRs) with experience in international teams differ in their perceptions of research ethics (RE) from those without such experience. Although international collaboration is widely studied, its effects on team members’ ethical attitudes remain underexplored. Adopting an “ethics-in-practice” perspective that treats ethics as embedded in the everyday routines and cultures of scientific groups, we argue that collaboration in international teams entails negotiating diverse norms of “robust science,” which can lead to the uptake of new ethical practices. A survey of ECRs shows that most acknowledge facing ethically contentious issues at work and reveals systematic differences between those with and without international-team experience. Russia offers a particularly apt case: its academic community long operated in relative isolation − first under the Iron Curtain, later due to financial and institutional constraints − with major shifts only in recent years. The study found significant differences between the two groups. These findings underscore the importance of culture-in-practice in shaping ethical orientations.</p>