In the suburbs of Barnaul

This picture shows the price Russia continues to pay, in terms of neglected infrastructure, for capital flight, prestige projects like the Olympics, nuclear willy-waving and bureaucratic centralisation and graft. I wonder how long the patience of the Russian people will last.

Of course, most of Barnaul is a Soviet nightmare, though there are modern districts springing up. The remarkable thing is how pleasant most of the people are in personal contact, especially if they are under forty (i.e. of an age which means that they were still at school when socialism collapsed and have not had their spirit poisoned by economic idiocy and creative sterility). They take government with the same stoicism as most British people take the weather.