Now it has all changed. Or has it?  The corruption remains, and the same old officials are still being appointed. Now the corruption involves hundreds of millions of dollars.

  One things that has changed dramatically, is all this corporate corruption, crime and murder that is fundamental to a Capitalist economy, is totally supported by the West and Western economic apparatus, like Swiss banks that are playing a fundamental role in money laundering.

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The cruel joke that is going around has never rang more true.
  "Soviet propaganda lied about Socialism, but not about Capitalism."
  Of course apologists for Capitalist economics will always say it is people who are corrupt, greedy, and evil; not the economic system. Well, the people are the same, it is the system that has changed!

Russians have taken all the ugliness of the Western business mentality and none of the good. They have adopted many Western values accept the humanitarian and ecological ones, other words a 1950's value system.

Western cultural imperialism is destroying Russian culture; as it has done where ever it goes, like a virus. I have seen almost nothing of the pre-perestroika, or Soviet and 19^th century culture. All Russian culture does now is attempt to emulate Western values.
To be continued...