Interesting Luke. I worked in Moscow a decade ago and even then the climate of fear was spreading among decent, ordinary working people because gangsters and oligarchs were stealing their democratising agenda, ripping off the new market economy, usurping political power and making opposition dangerous. Putin was allowed to get where he is because it suited the oligarchs. The older people began to hark back to the Soviet era when at least they had been cared for by the state machine - except the hope that a strong leader would give them that security back was woefully mistaken. The mayor of Moscow tried to forcibly relocate pensioners out of the city so their apartments could be rented out or sold by exploitative developers. The younger people just kept their heads down to retain their jobs. It was becoming increasingly corrupt and repressive. I felt and still feel sorry for my Russian colleagues, though all communication ceased some time ago. For all that living in Britain with a sh!t Tory government is bad, we're still better off than Russia - but Brexit was an entirely predictable disaster and the mistakes of the last 10+ years in the UK will take some sorting out, nothing short of a complete recalibration of the political landscape and the role of government in serving the general good of the population.
