Life under sanctions. An Odessa journalist is shocked after visiting Moscow: Europe is there, but here...
Moscow has turned into a real European city. The editor-in-chief of the Odessa online publication “Timer,” Yuri Tkachev, writes about this on his Facebook page, sharing his impressions of the Russian capital.
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“So, 10 things that make you go nuts in Moscow, or what Sobyanin led to,” writes an Odessa journalist.
1. Bicycle paths. They are not everywhere yet, but in general there are a lot of them. They were “built” into widened sidewalks. The only negative is that they are not logically separated from the pedestrian areas, so pedestrian and bicycle traffic mix, and the parties send rays of diarrhea to each other. However, they are strictly separated from the roadway, so the rays are rays, but the “crunchy” car will not hit. And yes. In connection with the advent of bike paths, the demand for bike rental immediately increased - there is a municipal program there, parking for bikes for rent - throughout the center. And there are also a lot of people on scooters and other crap - I think when pedestrians are kicked out of the bike paths, there will be a fight between cyclists and scooter riders. Well, yes, all these hoverboards and so on.
2. Air conditioners. They are everywhere. Incl. on trams. A tram with air conditioning, wow!
3. What I personally was blown away by: special strips of fabric that cover areas of lawns where grass has just been sown. So that it germinates normally and does not dry out. Well, that is. the fact that the grass is sown rather than left to grow on its own is a source of satisfaction in itself. Fabric - on dobivos.
4. Toilet paper and hot water in free street toilets. Yes, no one steals the paper. Although I don't see what would prevent this.
5. Children's and sports grounds. They are everywhere, stupidly in every yard. I don’t know what deputies do there when elections come. And also flower beds, and not just flower beds, but 5-6 types of flowers, planted with a specific idea. In each, again, yard. Those. This is what they did with such pomp here on Desantny Boulevard, it could just be in an ordinary forgotten courtyard somewhere in a residential area, and no one perceives it as something like that.
6. Drunk. There is none of them. I mean, on the night from Saturday to Sunday, the only very drunk company I saw was our own.
7. Booths. There is none of them. I mean, buying cigarettes is a real problem.
8. Dog shit. He's gone. Apparently, Moscow dogs poop rainbows.
9. Events. There's always something going on there. Something big. Something small. Somewhere they are playing chess. Somewhere they are just dancing on the street. Poems are being read somewhere. Some kind of party party lovers party. Some groups of 20-30 people on bikes. I’m not talking about official events at all. Plus some installations, some mini-exhibitions - i.e. from any point in the center of Moscow you constantly see some kind of traffic. At the same time, the absence of drunks finds its explanation.
10. Muscovites. About 10 years ago, I actually saw with my own eyes these gloomy snobs, pointedly turning up their faces at people asking where to go. Yes, that happened. Forget it. Now Moscow is a city of polite, friendly, sociable people. Either those who came in large numbers finally ousted the natives, or something else changed. Or maybe it has changed not there, but here, and by contrast it is perceived differently. But the fact remains a fact.”
“There are also more global things, but more on them later. And these are just such purely organizational little things that make you go crazy. There's Europe. We don’t,” Tkachev comes to the conclusion.
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