I've never heard of stealing and reselling laptops in Russia, perhaps because used laptop market is very saturated. People have more than they can possibly sell. This might change in a few years of harsh economic downturn but there's no signs yet.

Ten years ago cellphone stealing was a thing, then market saturated and it became thing of past.

I've been to Uruguay and we had no problem using ATMs at Tres Cruces. Of course you need to carry some cash, but $100 equivalent is more than enough. Argentina, totally different story as you might imagine.