Unfortunately no. I was born in the USSR, and have traveled extensively to visit distant relatives, near Perm. That's why I understand very well the difference between what most tourists visiting only St Petersburg and Moscow see and the real Russia that starts beyond MKAD. Those relatives are from a branch of family tree who were taken from their homes on a cold night in March 1949, forced into cattle cars, and sent deep into Russia. When one of them had terminal cancer, I often brought medical supplies other basic necessities, because the level of care given to cancer patients in Russian hospices would get people jailed for neglect in Europe.

That experience in particular was like stepping into a time machine and arriving in 1980s Soviet Union. People in the west would never notice most details, like the way superiors yell, boss around and humiliate their subordinates in most mundane situations.

Another random detail was the way people treat their homes. Where I live, every apartment building has a legally established cooperative that manages jointly-owned parts of the building (parking lots, green areas, walkways, roof, exterior walls of the building and public spaces like hallways inside). Often this is delegated to professional management companies, but it's pretty common for someone from the building to take the management responsibility. Over time, from jointly collected maintenance fee, buildings have been renovated. New roofs, new insulation, solar panels, regular cleaning, etc.

In Russia, the concept of "home" seems to end at the front door. Even if people have made a modern yevroremont in their apartments, the hallways and exteriors are dirty, ugly, unmaintained and falling apart. When entering a typical commie block, the interior looks like it hasn't been renovated since it was built sometime during the Brezhnev era. Paint peeling, phone and internet cables dangling, electrical wiring unchanged since the 1970s. Nobody gives a shit about public areas. And it goes both ways. One of the first things Russian tourists in Europe notice and mention, especially in smaller places: how well maintained everything is.

While this may seem insignificant, I believe it is a key reason why Russia is still such a shithole. A cooperative means that people pool together their resources, democratically vote how to manage the building, choose people to act in their name and keep them accountable. It's the place where every homeowner learns how the entire country runs. How public finances are managed. How laws enable and restrict things that you can and cannot do. How to apply for things like renovation grants and coordinate them with government institutions. How to choose the right people for the job. How to analyze past performance and plan for the future. Capable people will quickly move on to local elections, becoming members of local government or council. The most capable will rise to become cabinet ministers and presidents. The most basic level of jointly taking care of the parking lot in front of the house or repairing stormwater drains is where the entire free society starts from.

I haven't seen that in Russia. Instead, I see people living in filth, with paint peeling and lights broken in hallways and cars parking on grass turning everything into a mud field, while shaking a fist at the Americans and "Gayrope" in jealousy and bitterness and unwillingness to admit your failures and in naive hope that by murdering enough people in foreign countries, you somehow gain the respect of the world and return to a past glory that never actually existed. And this is very convenient for the Kremlin rat and his cronies, because this way you will stay complacent, politically and societally inactive ("I am not interested in politics yada yada") and will never become a risk to their palaces and megayachts and NYC penthouses.

Sometimes I can't believe that people this stupid exist. If only the world knew how you actually lived outside of MKAD.