From Russia With Love and Squalor. (cover story)

RUSSIAN politics & government, 1991-; PRICE inflation; CONFLICT (Psychology); UNEMPLOYMENT; CIVIL war; POVERTY; IMPORTS

The article focuses on the political condition of Russia. The breakup of the Soviet Union has accelerated the fall into an abyss of hyperinflation, shortages, unemployment and economic shrinkage. Rumors of coups, communal conflicts and civil war fill common conversation and the press. A very few have very quickly become very rich and are pleased to find an array of available consumables, from Cadillacs to Chanel, while many more have been plunged into poverty and can only window-shop for the new imports.