FT: Along the Trans-Siberian, support for Putin & Medvedev team is broad but may prove shallow

b3zdomny · #1 (**permalink**) 02-28-2008, 01:58 AM

And the spectre of wholesale Chinese immigration looms large

Quote:

By Neil Buckley
Published: February 26 2008 02:00 | Last updated: February 26 2008 02:00

In the number eight train from Novosibirsk to Vladivostok, a 3,700-mile journey, the third-class carriages swarm with tattooed men in T-shirts and tracksuits. Smells of sweat, vodka and the travellers' survival rations of salted fish wrapped in newspaper mingle in the overheated air.

Men like these travel in their hundreds every week along Russia's fabled trans-Siberian railway to the final stop, Vladivostok, to buy used cars imported from nearby Japan. Then they drive them back thousands of miles along a trans-Siberian highway completed with some fanfare just three years ago, to sell them at a profit.

Taking a penknife to the seal of another vodka bottle, Sergei, a former car mechanic in his late forties from Novosibirsk, Siberia's biggest city, says he has done this journey twice a month for eight years and has no other option. "Who will give me a job at my age? There are no jobs in Novosibirsk, or at least decent jobs," he shrugs.

He has an angry message for President Vladimir Putin about the much-vaunted cross-Siberian road. In parts, he says, it is barely a gravel track. "If you happen to be talking to Putin," says Sergei, "tell him this. Let him travel along this highway that he accepted as finished, whenever it was. There simply is no road. It's just a kind of general direction. He'd be ashamed!"

These wagons clanking through the frozen Siberian taiga are a kind of metaphor for large parts of Russia. Their inhabitants have learnt in the brutal capitalism of the post-Soviet era to get by through private enterprise of sorts, though they produce little. They are proud their country is again a player on the world stage but are strangely insecure about its and their own future - as well as ashamed that oil-rich Russia still cannot build a decent road across its territory...

complete story here

BZM · #2 (**permalink**) 03-04-2008, 06:23 AM

b3zdomny, Can you confirm that my site looked fine on the 27th of February when you made this post? My host is convinced that my site was hacked more than a week ago (before the 15th of February) because the last copy of my site they saved (stamped on the 15th) was hacked.

I can tell them with 100% certainty that they are wrong but it would be be nice to have a third party agree with me. Thank you.

b3zdomny · #3 (**permalink**) 03-04-2008, 02:55 PM

Yes, BZM, I can certify with 100% confidence that the site looked fine when I made this post. In fact, during the time the site was hacked, I had minimal contact with it for fear of compromising my machine with a malicious script. I'm sorry for the headaches this is causing you. Hacking is such a useless waste of valuable talent! best regards from your fellow Russophile, b3zdomny

BZM · #4 (**permalink**) 03-04-2008, 05:38 PM

Thanks for confirming. I agree without about avoiding the site. I also tried to avoid the site as much as possible except when working with support because the hacker could have put a script in the page as well as an ugly graphic.

I also agree about hacking being a complete waste of talent, time, and resources. I have spent tons of time on this already and still don't have it fixed.

The worst part is that google quit sending me any traffic.