[…] perhaps it’s fitting that Lamborghini, Porsche and Rolls-Royce dealerships have opened near the Moscow apartment building where the Soviet leader once lived.
Back then, I witnessed the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union amid the political and social reforms unleashed by Mikhail Gorbachev.
[…] Putin is preparing to campaign for yet another six-year presidential term and continues his quest to restore Russia’s standing in a post-Cold War world.
The empty stores and punishing long lines of the 1980s and early ’90s are gone, replaced by 24-hour coffee shops, supermarkets and pharmacies with helpful staff.
Entering the hotel, I now see sweeping staircases, plush …read more
Source: San Francisco Chronicle