The problems are apparent everywhere you go.
Automobile traffic is an on-going accident waiting to happen.
On one stretch of highway that effectively circled Moscow, over 200 fatal accidents a year are the norms. Ben concludes, unequivocally, that the Russian Air Force, as a threat, is no longer a player. He claims, and I concur, that over half its operational fleet of approximately 5,000 aircraft now is grounded or unserviceable, and by the year 2000, only about a third of that will still be flyable. Items that western military pilots don't even blink at, like the most rudimentary of lap top and conventional desk top computers, remain an extremely rare commodity in Russia. The reasons for this dramatic and drastic decline are many and real.