An Eyewitness to Moscow's Cold-Heartedness

I would like to inform you of an event I witnessed recently, which really made me think about the way things are progressing in Moscow.I was leaving a bar around 12:45 A.M. after a Saturday evening out with friends. I started walking up Vozdvizhenka Street, directly across from the Lenin Library metro station, a six-lane, one-way street. There I saw a man simply standing in the middle of the road. Even at this late hour there was quite a bit of traffic on this busy street, and cars were swerving trying to avoid this seemingly drunk man. As I walked closer, I saw that a car had stopped directly in front of this man and the driver proceeded to get out of his car, walked up to the drunk pedestrian and punched him in the face. The drunk man, having no bearings or faculties, simply crumbled to the ground; the driver returned to his car and drove around the man, who was now lying down in the middle of the road.As if this was not bad enough, as I arrived at the scene I saw that the man lying in the street was not alone, but had a friend who was standing watching this take place from the side of the road. I quickly walked up to him and inquired why he was not assisting his friend, but he only stared back at me blankly, as he was equally drunk.As I had just arrived and questioned his friend, I still maintained visual contact with the fallen man, which was difficult due to the volume of traffic passing by. Out of nowhere, a large BMW with tinted windows came speeding around the corner weaving in and out of traffic, and without regard ran over the fallen man as if he was not even there and, without even slowing down, sped away.At this point I came to the conclusion that the man's friend was not going to do anything, so I proceeded to walk into the middle of the street to try and help this man, because the cars simply continued to drive around him. The friend at this point decided to follow me and offer what assistance he could. I quickly realized that the fallen man had at least one but probably two broken legs, due to the amount of blood on the street and the unnatural positioning of his legs. As I stood in the middle of the street, cars swerving around me without a thought of slowing down, I asked myself if I was really smart in standing here, after just witnessing what took place. I decided to stay and try to assist by waving cars down. After several minutes and about 50 cars had driven by, including one police car and one ambulance that slowed but did not stop, a car with four young men stopped and assisted. Only after about seven to eight minutes of standing in the middle of the road did a police car finally stop and inquire about the incident.I explained what had happened to the best of my ability, and then decided to leave, as I really did not want to have to get involved with any legal matters surrounding the incident.As I flagged down a taxi and proceeded to discuss the incident with the driver, the whole thing seemed illusory, due to the series of events that were simply incomprehensible to any normal person. Why would people not stop for another person lying in the middle of the street? If it were a dog I imagine most people would have stopped to assist! I thought about the incident for two days afterwards and still have not really understood it.Is this what the city is coming to?Michael Lambert, Moscow