Street racing a la russe

Russia has been long known to foreigners as a land of cold and communism.
However, at the moment a new stereotype is forming in the minds of Western observers.




http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hKyc15w4ECE/SzIwqv98csI/AAAAAAAAAAc/Vu_WcX69fVA/s1600-h/800px-Lamborghini_Murci%C3%A9lago_Roadster_2005%5B1%5D.jpg

Money, money, money

"Russians are so rich!", exclaims my English friend emphatically. My raised eyebrows vividly witness my disagreement. With one-fifth of the population according to the official statistics (and one-third as per independent sources) living below the poverty line, my friend's point of view is nothing short of ludicrous. Although he probably has his reasons to think so.

Oligarchs make their generous contribution to the image of a Russian person in the eyes of a foreigner. There are quite a few things they are notorious for to the Western public - buying famous football clubs, enjoying luxurious villas on the Cote d'Azure, having fun in Courchevel

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/markets/europe/article1292023.ece

Oddly enough, no charity activities or environment protection concerns are on top of their list of priorities.

But tycoons apparently feel it's important to give a good education to their children. "Golden" kids are often sent to study to obscure but posh sounding places where they appear when they are free from buying posh cars or breaking 1,000 dollar champagne bottles (believed to be a good omen in Russia although one would normally break just a couple of glasses at a marriage or a similar event). Obviously, such intense studies take their toll and kids have to unwind, no doubt about that. Street racing along the banks of Lake Geneva seems to have been one of those activities.
http://en.rian.ru/world/20091123/156951219.html

Once in Geneva

Quiet Swiss roads apparently are not used to youngsters speeding by in their Lamborghinis.

So it must have come as a bit of a surprise for a German senior citizen carefully driving his Volkswagen at 60 mph when his car was hit by a luxurious vehicle going at 124 mph according to the official version.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hKyc15w4ECE/SzIyXoOTkZI/AAAAAAAAAAk/gvpgrL08MQY/s1600-h/770px-Lago_di_Lugano3%5B1%5D.jpg

The funny thing was that after a bit of contemplating the court ruled that the 22-year-old student who had violated the speed limitations (there were repair works on this part of the road) and who had alcohol detected in his blood was not guilty. The German was obviously in the wrong because he had followed the traffic regulations. It happens.

To be continued...

If this story is not nauseating enough there is a development to it. Journalists who covered the situation were faced with the strict censorship. The interviewees became edgy and nervous and insisted on taking away their most expressive quotes, most likely after the conversation with the protective Dads of the naughty kids. Editors pressured by "the omnipotent" of the Russian society had their writers soften the tone of their articles to avoid the risk of hurting feelings of the sensitive tycoons.

I had a chance to read the draft versions of some articles and to compare them with what readers saw in the papers soon afterwards, and didn't know how to react. Using Russian poet Mikhail Lermontov's quote, "all of this would have been funny had it not been so sad".