a bit OT, but not so much regarding poverty in Russia and Putin's oligarchs
"Sunday night I rode my bike from a dinner home across the October Square, on which a fat cast-iron Lenin stands and points the direction with his arm, although after all sorts of historical experiences one is rather suspicious of Lenin's directional indications.
Fortunately, I had to go in another direction. A remarkable car crossed my path, a GAZ 21 Volga from the 1960s, clanking and loud and smelly, but rolling very straight. The driver, a young guy with a goatee and a bright orange hoodie, had completely worked on his car with a grinder, resulting in a Beuys-like work of art made of chrome, rubber, rust, and a touch of residual blue.
"Hot vehicle", I thought to myself, and so thought probably also two women around 30, who stood next to me at the traffic light, each with a bottle of beer in the hand. We looked after the vehicle quite fascinated and said "kruto", which in the context means something like "horny".
But then something happened that always happens when someone in Putin's Moscow drives a "kruto" through the area. The police officer, who is unavoidable at every intersection, raised his baton and waved the Volga and his driver over. The Mercedes and BMW drove through, the driver of the patriotic GAZ 21 Volga was frisked. I was as outraged as the two women.
But unlike me, they took action. They walked straight up to the policeman, beer bottles at the ready, and confronted him. What did he want from the driver? That's not the way to do it.
"Any oligarch mafioso can drive through here, but the average people are being harassed. Let the Volga drive on immediately!"The policeman was quite surprised, but hardly got a word in edgewise, as he was immediately interrupted by the tall, resolute one of the two.
"What the hell. Don't make excuses and let the man drive on!"Silently, the policeman handed the papers back to the driver. The Volga jerkily picked up speed, the policeman stared at the ground, the women continued walking.
And I thought to myself, if anyone ever overthrows the gangster regime here, it won't be the Americans, but women with beer bottles in their hands.
That was already the case in February 1917, when the tsar toppled from his throne. Lenin was still in Switzerland then, warming his butt."
- By wat0n