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In Moscow, McDonald's packs up, radio falls silent and the brain drain begins

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Re: In Moscow, McDonald's packs up, radio falls silent and the brain drain begins

#61

Post by laurent92 »

meepmorp wrote: post #35
smoyer wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curiously, when the wall came down I thought we could all finally be friends.

Maybe if the Soviet Union hadn't just completely collapsed, things might've been different. Or even just not having a corrupt, alcoholic clown for a president during the most critical period in Russian history since the war.

Maybe our FMI didn’t do such a good job at implementing capitalism in Russia. I know the World Bank criticized it a lot for its actions during the 1990 decade, namely Joseph Stieglitz.

Re: In Moscow, McDonald's packs up, radio falls silent and the brain drain begins

#62

Post by PedroBatista »

meepmorp wrote: post #35
smoyer wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curiously, when the wall came down I thought we could all finally be friends.

Maybe if the Soviet Union hadn't just completely collapsed, things might've been different. Or even just not having a corrupt, alcoholic clown for a president during the most critical period in Russian history since the war.

The chaos was inevitable, it happens ever time and in every society, specially after 70 years of one brutal regime. I was expecting even worse ( and it was bad ).

And after a certain period of suffering and unrest, people just want "stability" and that's when any well-intention-ed politician in a country with 5min of democracy experience don't stand a change against the quintessential competent strongman savior of the once-great empire.

The problems and solutions for Russia are inside, but I don't see how that society after 70 years + 20 under alternate realities can change to actually modern and democratic ( which is very different from being Americanized ).

Re: In Moscow, McDonald's packs up, radio falls silent and the brain drain begins

#63

Post by VWWHFSfQ »

klipt wrote: post #46
VWWHFSfQ wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From my tangential experience, Russian society is about 20 years behind the West, and 30+ years behind USA. As an American, I absolutely _loved_ mall society. But that peaked in the 1980s and 1990s in USA. It's mostly over at this point. I envy that they are (were) still enjoying it.

Isn't a mall just a private version of a public walkable space? Like what the town square used to be, except ironically with malls in order to reach the walkable space you have to drive there.

just a private version of a public walkable space ....

I guess you had to be there.

Re: In Moscow, McDonald's packs up, radio falls silent and the brain drain begins

#65

Post by pkaye »

meepmorp wrote: post #35
smoyer wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curiously, when the wall came down I thought we could all finally be friends.

Maybe if the Soviet Union hadn't just completely collapsed, things might've been different. Or even just not having a corrupt, alcoholic clown for a president during the most critical period in Russian history since the war.

Yeltsin the predecessor was also corrupt. To protect himself when he left office, he helped Putin get into power when he resigned. Putin himself was involved in corruption in the city level in St Petersburg with the help of the mayor. Putin in turn granted Yeltsin protection from prosecutions and also covered his tracks of the corruption he was involved in St Petersburg.

Re: In Moscow, McDonald's packs up, radio falls silent and the brain drain begins

#66

Post by raverbashing »

kizer wrote: post #5

What an epic blunder by Putin which we can only hope leads to some kind of change in Russia.

"blunder"

I'd argue the blunder is on the yes men surrounding him who now will lose their perks because they didn't think of dealing with the problem first

Re: In Moscow, McDonald's packs up, radio falls silent and the brain drain begins

#67

Post by kcb »

bingohbangoh wrote: post #41
smoyer wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curiously, when the wall came down I thought we could all finally be friends.

Quoted post unavailable.

Strange. Last I checked the US arms many countries that share borders with friends. The Netherlands didn't seem to care when the US sold F-35s to Belgium.

Re: In Moscow, McDonald's packs up, radio falls silent and the brain drain begins

#68

Post by older »

tartoran wrote: post #24
AlexCoventry wrote: post #16

Doesn't he risk a 15-year prison sentence, by writing this? Pretty gutsy, to let it be published while he's still in Moscow.

Oh yeah, some Russians have my utmost respect for putting up and being vocal about that brutal regime they’re under. I think it toughens you up after some point but from my outsider perspective I would be simply terrified to speak up.

Yes, that's about 27% of them: https://www.levada.ru/en/ratings/

Re: In Moscow, McDonald's packs up, radio falls silent and the brain drain begins

#69

Post by fartcannon »

klipt wrote: post #46
VWWHFSfQ wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From my tangential experience, Russian society is about 20 years behind the West, and 30+ years behind USA. As an American, I absolutely _loved_ mall society. But that peaked in the 1980s and 1990s in USA. It's mostly over at this point. I envy that they are (were) still enjoying it.

Isn't a mall just a private version of a public walkable space? Like what the town square used to be, except ironically with malls in order to reach the walkable space you have to drive there.

They were air-conditioned.

Re: In Moscow, McDonald's packs up, radio falls silent and the brain drain begins

#70

Post by howinteresting »

throwawayboise wrote: post #52
oneoff786 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does this mean?

Western schools teach a lot of crap that is fundamentally useless, at the expense of mathematics, science, and history.

Equally without evidence is my hypothesis that Russian schools focus too much on math and science which has led to Putin's public support being so high.
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