In the past 20 years, Russia sold petroleum in the amount of 3,5 trillion dollars US. This money is nowhere to be found. Nothing was built, no social programs were instituted. The existing social programs are being dismantled. Russia ‘ s banks owe $600 billion.
Where did the money go, you might ask? It went to pay for the ridiculously extravagant lifestyles of Putin ‘ s lapdog oligarchs.
All of the Western B-list starlets (Naomi Campbell, Enrique Iglesias, Mickey Rourke, Mila Jovovich, etc) were hanging out in Russia, peddling their aging bodies and past-sell-by date notoriety in Moscow because there was just so damn much money there. Moscow was drowning in petro-dollars siphoned away by Putin ‘ s pet oligarchs.
In the meantime, the rates of drug addiction (especially among the teenagers) are soaring. The HIV rates are exploding. Russia is the only country where HIV for the most part doesn’t spread sexually. The disease is reaching epidemic proportions because of the use of shared needles by addicts.
Economic inequality has reached epic proportions. Instead of pouring snot over a copy of Hunger Games, look at Russia where your idol Putin has created a glittering capital that is drowning in every conceivable luxury while the rest of the enormous country is boozing and drugging itself to death amidst utter hopelessness and horrible poverty.
I’m sick to death of writing these posts about Putin. But only today I got comments from 3 facile fools glorifying this vicious little animal. What else can I do but keep writing if you people are refusing to take your heads out of your asses? I haven’t been on Facebook for months because I’m tired of the deluge of Putiniana idiocy that I will encounter. Something is so wrong about all of you Putin-lickers and you are not even aware of it.
Clarissa's Blog 
What I don’t get is…. why can’t Russians make cheese?
Several times I’ve seen stories on the rising price of imported cheeses which seem to imply that for Russia it’s foreign or nothing.
Is there some infrastructure thing going on that I’m not aware of?
In the early 90’s in Poland there abundant varieties of ‘yellow’ cheese (which basically all tasted the same, not terrible but nothing that good either) and a number of cottage cheese type products (one of my favorites of which cottage cheese seems to have disappeared, smoked pressed).
Now there’s tons of different stuff including all kinds of knock offs of French and Italian and Spanish and Greek cheeses. Not as good as the original (which are also available) but perfectly fine for normal everyday consumption (and much better than what I recall being available at your typical supermarket in the US).
Again, is there some kind of infrastructure thing (limited number of cows due to poor grazing, lack of feed for cows that need to kept inside?)
Or are Russians really that feckless that in 25 years they haven’t figured out how to make cheese themsevles?
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Unfortunately, they can’t make anything. 60% of all food in Russia is imported. Forget cheese which was never a very Russian staple. They even import pickled cucumbers!
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If it’s anything like the kashkaval cheese I can buy at the nearby Eastern European market, I don’t think I’ve been missing much. Yes, it tastes like cheese, but it’s just a bit boring.
The closest Turkish equivalent is considerably more tasty.
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I’ve never heard of kashkaval. But yes, we are all into very bland cheeses.
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I’m going to ask a very basic question here. Does putin need the oligarchs more or do they need him more? They obviously need him so they can steal national resources. What does he get out of this arrangement?
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Good question. I tend to believe that both Putin and the oligarchs were appointed to their jobs by the same organization. The goal was to pretend there was democracy and economic reforms. And it worked.
Both Putin and the oligarchs worked for the KGB or held high ranks in the Communist Party.
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A Russian man who went with “Je suis Charlie” was sent to jail for 8 days by Russian court (in Russian):
http://morreth.livejournal.com/2605745.html
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