Status Updates From Putin Country: A Journey in...

(2012) "The contradictions between the mood of defensive nationalism and the appetite for all things Western are increasingly confusing. Friends start talking positively about a resurgent Russian identity, though they are hard-pressed to explain what they mean... [despite state media being more anti-US, all shops and restaurants have foreign names to represent quality and service."

1998—Russia defaults on its loans, Chelyabinsk hit hard.

informal outdoor markets replaced state stores, and people met outside to trade anything (clothing, cheap imports from China and Turkey, scavenged building materials) for rubles, which they would then take to money exchanges to buy dollars with (which they would then hide under their mattresses). demoralizing and exhausting.

rusted Zhigulis and Volgas (cars) in Chelyabinsk

"While Yeltsin's team argued that the privatization campaign was necessary to put the country's assets into the hands of people who might get the working, most Russians saw nothing but closed, mysterious auctions, inside deals, scams, street crime, and the rise of a privileged mega-wealthy group of oligarchs, many of whom had come to economic power with hidden Communist Party funds."

Vzglad (Outlook) program on air on Friday nights. Satirical show called Puppets which poked fun at everyone.

"...government apartment suddenly became owners, though just what that meant then was unclear to most except for the criminally inclined. Given the absence of credit and mortgages, there was no real estate market—except for those who were making a lot of cash. Gangsters preyed on the elderly, conning or killing them [for apartments]... the state no longer provided apartments to those who had been waiting in line."

"Like many Russian cities, Chelyabinsk was organized around its foundering factories, which in many ways were self-contained mini-cities: they had their own run-down apartment complexed, hospitals, clinics, and day-care centers. Now these facilities were unloaded onto the local government, which could not cope. The government in turn told residents they could privatize their dwellings. Those lucky enough to have a...

"The only hotels were even more run-down, with irregular heat and water, so the local authorities insisted I stay in what had been a Communist Party guesthouse. It was only marginally better, with its standard narrow single bed, peeling wallpaper, and pink nylon curtains — and its distinct smell of Soviet antiseptic and cigarettes, a smell that still permeated the country."

"Sprung free from government subsidies, lacking the structure and orders they needed to be 'competitive,' the area's factories required major revamping and investment. Given domestic chaos and a lack of capital at home, this had to be Western investment, about which they knew nothing. 'Profit' and 'bankruptcy' were new buzzwords. A whole new set of ideas were gripping the country... [Chelyabinsk] was ill-prepared."

"When I first arrived in 1993, Chelyabinsk was a depressing place, where people were alternatively desperate, hopeful, and fearful as changes emanated from Moscow. The entire region had been closed to foreigners since the late 1930s because of its 'secret' military and industrial installations... Suddenly the Chelyabinsk region was a part of the world."

"...a place rich in minerals and coal, forests, fields and lakes. They believe they have supported the country in war and in peace. But the cost has been exorbitant, and the region is still raw form the ravages of history."

"The size of Austria, and with a population of only three million, the Chelyabinsk region sits on the southern edge of the Ural Mountains. The word 'mountains' is a bit of a misnomer. Worn by the ages, they are not really little more than humps, dividing the western, 'European' part of Russia from Siberia. Far from Moscow and the Pacific alike, people here are proud to live in what they call the backbone of Russia...

"As any Russian will tell you, Moscow is not Russia, and in the 1990s it was clear that the country's richest and most powerful city was racing even further ahead."

"Compared with the colorful rocks indigenous to the Urals, glistening green malachite and deep purple charoite, the residue of the meteor is a dull lump, with sculpted pits where its molten material chipped off on its extraordinary journey."