>>> "John E. Norem"
Volga roadtrip: A Soviet icon
*The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes is travelling in a Volga car along
the
Volga river to take a snapshot of life in Vladimir Putin's Russia, as
the presidential election looms. This is his first piece, from the city
of Nizhny Novgorod. *
I am sitting in a spartan hotel room in a grim industrial suburb of Nizhny Novgorod.
^^^^^^^
CB: "grim" ? Sounds like leftover anti-Soviet language.