Comment # 19 on bug 979566 from jaakov jaakov

Thank you a lot for the patience!
On the machine in question I did:

$ sudo chmod 0644 /usr/share/fonts/misc/fonts.dir
$ sudo zypper install --force xorg-x11-fonts-core

Then I restarted gnome.

As a result, cyrillic fonts in both xterm and uxterm are displayed.
Thanks a lot for the feedback!

The only small remaining issue is that uxterm is then started with fonts of
larger size than those used in xterm. 
Ctrl + right click in uxterm gives the following menu:

Default
efont 10 pixel
efont 12 pixel
efont 14 pixel
efont 16 pixel
misc 18 pixel
efont 24 pixel
Escape sequence
Selection
-----------------
...

It might be a bug or a feature, but personally, a different font size is not of
a great nuisance to me.

So, if nothing unusual happens and I don't complain again, say, by tomorrow,
feel free to close this bug report.