Three years ago, Stockmann was the only Western hard-currency grocery shop in town. Now, all this has changed.
Foreign journalists, business executives and diplomats can travel throughout the country. They can live in a UPDK building or in a Russian apartment. There are over 30 hard-currency shops in Moscow, several top-class hotels, good restaurants, health clubs, car dealerships and a golf club.
The only problem, beside the price tag on these services, is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to partake of such luxuries when human suffering and deprivation is so evident around us.
It is not a comforting feeling to realize that two drinks in a hard-currency bar equals the monthly salary of a schoolteacher. A simple meal in one of the city's better restaurants could easily support two Russian families for several months. Hard-currency clothing shops display elegant coats;
on the sidewalk outside, there are people who cannot afford a winter coat or solid shoes for their children. For pensioners, hunger is around the corner again.
The market may have arrived in Russia, but foreigners and a small layer of Russian entrepreneurs seem to be the only ones able to benefit from the new economy. For most people, the new market is cruel.
We are witnessing the birth of a primitive form of capitalism, without protection of the weaker sectors of society.
It doesn't have to be this way. Countries in Western Europe show that it is possible to combine a market economy with government policies to protect the poor. Unfortunately, the Russian government is so beleaguered with problems that it has not begun to formulate such programs.
What does this mean to foreigners? Should we suddenly stop visiting hard-currency stores and stand in line with less fortunate Muscovites? Obviously not. In fact, the hard-currency economy and Western investment is needed for further change.
What we could do as a foreign community, however, is address the needs of people around us by encouraging investments, both personal and financial, whose sole purpose is not to serve only foreigners. We can show restraint and sensitivity. and we can remember that while our lives here have changed dramatically, life has only become more difficult for most Russians.
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