there was good and fine Vodka,  and undrinkable Vodka, depends on what you 
are willing to pay. Moskow got some 15,000 millionaires, they can pay, 
ordinary people don't buy the best Vodka. Their champangne is a mess (but of 
course they import good one). Moskow is extremly luxury, everything can be 
bought from all of the world. Never seen so many new super Mercedes, Rolls, 
BMW etc. But that town does not represent whole Russia, far from.     Some 
statistics:

the middle class: 4% of 168 million people (risky!)
90% of the economical power is in Moskow (crazy)
25% of the money is in the hands of 25 persons (very, very bad)
income tax 13% for ALL (good idea, the government get money)
hospital treatment and medecin : everyone can afford
cost for a Toyota Corolla: 15,000 USD.
Aeroflot, world's biggest : 50% new Airbus various models
Pollutions in rivers and lakes: waste water not permitted to let out without 
cleaning, hard regulations
unemployment: does not exist ! All people after Sovjet fall guaranteed job 
and they HAVE jobs, but the salary is a joke.

I did not say that I saw paradise, but a change that I thought was not 
possible in so short a time. Good or bad? Don't know, am not a demographist, 
or what it's named.

The cyrillic alfabet, not much of a problem, I could read most signs after 
one week  Some funny things R turned 180 degrees is 'ia' .  L is same as 
greek 'lambda',  P is pronunced 'r' ,  B is 'v' ,  C is 's'  and so on. CCCP 
is then 'sssr' etc. The medium american will read all signs in less than a 
week. All youngsters speak english. You manage well with german and french 
too. In Moscow. On the countryside noone speaks english, except for the 
young ones. The tour guides speak much better american than americans 
themselves! Most of them have been at american universities.

Inge

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dwight Mattix" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "TechNet E-Mail Forum" <[log in to unmask]>; "Inge" 
<[log in to unmask]>; <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, October 17, 2009 9:43 PM
Subject: Re: [TN] NTC: Russia


> but has the quality of vodka held up?  can they still make it right 
> without massive suffering?   ;^)
>
> At 12:22 PM 10/17/2009, Inge wrote:
>>Hi all,
>>am back after a couple of weeks by boat all along Volga river. Visited 
>>many
>>places, from small villages to Moskow.
>>Remarkable how brainwashed and indoctrinated I've been despite TV 
>>programs,
>>books, films etc. I still thought that mobile phones wouldn't work
>>everywhere, expected rusty Ladas, slammering trams, flimmering TVs, a KBG
>>man following me when taking photos near a military missile area,  greyish
>>and wrecky houses, shops with more or less empty desks, 25 year old
>>passenger aircrafts,  rusty railway trains, stinking diesel trains,
>>suspicioius people when shooting around with my digi cameras etc. What a
>>wrong image I had in my head. All quite opposite. Mobile worked 
>>everywhere,
>>even hundreds of kilometers from nearest community (masts everywhere), 
>>more
>>new cars than what I have seen anywhere else, super modern trains, that 
>>you
>>will not find anywhere in the US,  latest flatscreen TVs, noone interested
>>in my sneeking around, I could  walk straight into KGBs headquarter if I
>>wanted, the defense ministery had no fences around the huge building, I
>>walked with camera lifted just outside the President's office building 
>>(the
>>guardsmen took no notice) ,  modern diesel engines, advertisments of a 
>>size
>>I've never seen before, e.g. a 10,000 sq meter announcement for Mercedes
>>Benz. More moderna cash machines than what we have, everything 
>>computerized.
>>American music everywhere, english menues, english announcements, american
>>cars,....I thought sometimes that I was in the US, but this was many a 
>>times
>>much better (sorry to say so, but that's what I thought).  No forgotten
>>ghettos like in New Your or Paris or Liverpool, no people hanging around
>>doing nothing. No overweighted people. Everywhere a rumbling of building
>>machines, caterpillars and cranes. Building, repairing everywhere.  Of
>>course, I didn't see whole Russia, but 2,400 kilometers along Volga gives 
>>at
>>least a good glimpse.
>>
>>So, I had to readjust my idea about that country. Furthermore, maybe a 
>>very
>>wrong statement from my view, but I dare say : America, look up...not far
>>from here Russia will pass you (I don't speak of military power, which I
>>have nada insight in,  but welfare.
>>
>>This doesn't change my attitude to America, which I like very much, but
>>America got a competitor on my inside.
>>
>>Nevertheless, noone will care about what I think or say, I'm just 1 / 6 
>>000
>>000 000 of the total.
>>
>>Inge
>>
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