MOSCOW-NIZHNY NOVGOROD-NOVOSIBIRSK: “Forward to Communism!” That slogan defined, and cynically mocked, the do-nothing Brezhnev era of stagnation. Today, Russia is racked by a sense of déjà�vu for those times. Under Yeltsin, despite the chaos of flawed markets and an even more flawed democracy, there was a sense that things were moving forward. Now many Russians have no idea where they are moving forward or backward or, indeed, if they are moving at all.
MOSCOW-NIZHNY NOVGOROD-NOVOSIBIRSK: “Forward to Communism!” That slogan defined, and cynically mocked, the do-nothing Brezhnev era of stagnation. Today, Russia is racked by a sense of déjà�vu for those times. Under Yeltsin, despite the chaos of flawed markets and an even more flawed democracy, there was a sense that things were moving forward. Now many Russians have no idea where they are moving forward or backward or, indeed, if they are moving at all.