Is Russia's Economy Finally Breaking Down? - Silicon Curtain

[DFW]

2. I haven't been there for 25 years, so I'm relying on reports from those who have

It was already completely patchwork even at the turn of the century. Very few things were negotiated in Rubles. Mostly US dollars, cash. The few real people we had a chance to interact with were working two to three jobs to survive. Younger people who we assumed were university students sometimes approached those who were obvious tourists in Red Square, offering guided tours in English or German for a few dollars. It must have been 20° below zero out there (mid-December). Taxi rides were negotiated in advance, sometimes in dollars, sometimes in rubles. I can't imagine what it would have been like for someone with no knowledge of Russian.

The friend we were visiting had a local girlfriend, who was one of those holding down three jobs to get by. She spoke only Russian, and my wife speaks none, so she and my wife could only smile at each other. She is still stuck there, and they have only been able to talk on the phone for the last couple of years. From her, he gets a vague picture of the local state of affairs, although phone lines to the West are again closely monitored by the FSB (today's KGB), and she could easily disappear if the wrong thing is said, so they keep to generalities when the subject becomes "dangerous."

One thing of which I am rather confident--the rosy picture of Moscow painted by Tucker Carlson depicts Russian reality about as much as Hogwarts depicts a typical English boarding school.