Chris, what is going with Buckley? He was so anti-Putin and anti-New Russia (meaning the country becoming no different from the West).  I stopped an email exchange with him a year ago because of his contra approach. Now I see he has seen the light. What is going on at the FT? An interesting aside. I took a cab home this afternoon. (Better for me to write my programs at home - coffee to my left and smokes to my right - all in silence). The cabby said to me that it must be great to be a foreigner here. I asked why. He said you get all the great girls because of your money. I said that it is the Russians who have all the money. Chris and I are still here because Russia still needs some foreigners. We aren't the rich ones, not by a long shot. Most foreigners here serve a purpose to modernize the economy or have language skills. Some make good money, most don't anymore. Chris Doss <lookoverhere1@yahoo.com> wrote:<blockquote class="replbq" style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"> Financial Times October 31, 2006 >From shock therapy to consumer cure: Russia's middle class starts spending By Neil Buckley </blockquote> <hr size=1><a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=43257/*http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta"> Check out the New Yahoo! Mail </a>- Fire up a more powerful email and get things done faster.