This truly is a tragedy, as is most of Russia's history. I saw the same thing happening - and still happening today - in Novosibirsk, where I lived a while back (see "39 Months in Siberia" for the complete hair-raising tale). The situation basically stays the same in Russia. The majority of rich people there - and there are many - are all criminals. So with this newly-found "freedom," it's take the money and run. There is very little investing in a business to make it grow. The suits take all the earnings from their companies - left-over communist cronies - and pay their employees starvation wages. Unfortunately, very little has changed for the Russian population after Peristroika. The one exception to this is the IT industry; there one can actually make decent money - even if it is a Russian company.

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