The Moscow report – part 1
It’s only been a few days but I’ve been blown away by Moscow – Yes, I did see much of what I expected. The architecture is overpowering, the history is awesome, and the sense of being somewhere that only a few years ago would be nearly impossible never quite fades.
But what I can’t get over is how much I’ve seen that i did not imagine: lavish, decadent bars that rival those in any world city. The fact that you can hire ordinary drivers as taxis and just put out your arm and hop in cars to find your way. To see people walk around with open containers of beer, something verbotten in the states (apparently it’s illegal here too but tolerated).
There is so much going on here that I’ve never heard about – and as I sort it out I’ll be writing more.
Here’s a photo from St. Basil’s cathedral near the Kremlin.
I spent two years in Russia, in Vladimir during the 1990s. A business professor trying to get the Russians on track with Capitalism. What you see there now is not capitalism, because private property is not really secure, crime syndicates run the Regions, etc. There’s a tremendous discontent brewing because average Russians see all that wealth and they are SURE that it results simply from crime, that wealthy people are really criminals — all of them. Without courts, independent police and real opposition, the Russians are headed toward another revolution…….later.