I was messaging with a friend from grad school who has basically relocated to Moscow: "This is my home now" was a recent statement. She definitely does not support Russia's war effort but... Russia is a place that has made her happy after some disappointments in the US.
So after asking her where she lived I found myself poking around the streets of Moscow on Google Maps to see how it has changed in the quarter century since I was last there. The answer: a lot. It looks a lot better, much more like a fancy European city.
The questions, then, as I've posed them before, is how deep the transformation goes and what explains it? The stability Putin has brought, the interaction with the outside world?
My guess is that the transformation doesn't run that deep, though certainly those living in the larger provincial cities have benefited at least to a limited extent. For example, of IKEAs 17 stores in Russia, 8 were in either Moscow or St Petersburg, while the rest were further flung in places like Ufa, Rostov-on-Don, and Omsk. So at least those living near to regional capitals were experiencing the benefits of Russia's integration into the world. Not so much anymore.
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