I have been working in Moscow this week, so after jumping through the necessary 99 visa hurdles in advance, wife and I came out a few days early to do a spot of sightseeing as well. Sticking to a motoring theme - I could else be here all day describing the parallel universe that I found ? following are impressions formed over five days.
We were met at Sheremetyevo II airport by the driver my host had booked, his car surprisingly (to me) being a Rover 75. Moscow was the last place I expected to find such a car, but in fact they are reasonably plentiful along with MG ZTs (though not a single Tourer, ZT-T, or other MG Rover product could be seen).
We found the roads to be in a dreadful state, and driving hierarchy to be clearly driven (excuse the pun) by the size of engine, cost of car, and blackness of window tint, in that order. In other words, from extreme arrogance, through mere forcefulness, to meek compliance if your car has none of the aforementioned attributes or is of local construction. Think aggressive boy racer in tarted up and blacked out ten year old Five Series, and you are thinking of a mere beginner at the game. Undertaking, overtaking, weaving from lane to lane, all conducted with binary approach to throttle and brake, and at great speed along what were once impressive (and still are for sheer scale) boulevards. The masses of locally built cars and a reasonably smattering of mass market cars that we would recognize serve merely as mobile chicanes. Our Rover was being driven at up to 70 MPH through the city, undertaking and overtaking in the process, with us in turn being passed either side. Oh yes, along the dueled sections there are U-turners queued up in the outside lane to avoid, too. I have seen more (all of these cars painted black, of course) Porsche Cayenne Turbo 4x4s, current generation 750iL and V8 X5s, A8 W12s, Bentleys, and even Hummers than I have seen in the rest of my life, all adorned with acres of that aforementioned black tinted glass plus huge, usually chrome, wheels and rubber band tyres. Makes Prague and Shanghai (where I had previously seen such cars in their droves) look poor. If Saturday was typical, at night around the Kremlin and city centre, Japanese and Italian sports bikes are brought out to play, most on race exhaust pipes. The riders are usually without helmets or gloves and are stunt monkeys just out to show off. The police? From my own observation they stand and watch. Believe me UK Speeding Do Gooders worried about 32 MPH in a 30 limit or the need for yet another speed bump in your town, you already live in Utopia! Moscow would give you a coronorary!
Anarchy reins, if you have enough money; I saw many "ordinary" motorists ?pulled? for extremely trivial "offences". The police are allowed to supplement their poor income with fines, so it is apparently better just to cough up 150-200 Roubles (less than a Fiver) and be done with it. Oh yes; as an alternative to sports bikes, I've even seen and heard a deafeningly loud subwoofer equipped Honda Goldwing motorbike for the first time, with the 'three piece drum kit' (luggage) on the back converted to powerful speakers and amplifiers.
The Moscow Times yesterday reported Toyota investing US$140 million at a plant to be built near St Petersburg, with Ford already building the Focus, Renault their CEE market bargain basement models, and GM some Chevrolet cheapies in and around St Petersburg and Moscow. A few pages later, the subject turned to whether it will be sustainable growth for all (?An economic miracle? as it was captioned) or Big Time Bust. I look forward to reading the article properly when I have time to do so as my immediate impression is of plundered wealth being carved up between few. I saw hundreds of vans and minibuses that appear (from a quick Google) to be the GAZ Gazelle, a locally built, last-generation Ford Transit with locally sourced engines (from the different note) and a mild front end ?lights and bonnet? job. Otherwise identical to a Tranny, and with every standard Ford variant represented.
Connecting motoring with transport in general, the 'circle line' on the Metro is the line that has the famous stations that once would have looked fabulous; Beautiful marble, ceramic tiles, gold leaf, and crystal chandeliers. Now they are but a dirty, worn out, and shabby image of what they once were. To Moscow's credit though, the Metro is by far the best run I have ever used with trains every 45-60 seconds throughout the day. Cheap, too (about 25p regardless of journey duration), but I guess that's because those with dosh take the Beemer. All the station names (and city street signs) are written in Cyrillic alphabet though, so this is not a western tourist friendly place. To add to complication, station names change according to the line being used, so I would be totally stumped without my Czech, Russian second language, wife!
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