The land of the free

I am trying really hard not to turn this into a political Blog or one that lives up to the old stereotypes of the west is better than the east, democracy is better than communism kind of single-minded, blinkered crap.

I am in Russia by default, not entirely out of choice and I have a huge respect for the country, its people, its culture and their achievements which are always so easily overshadowed by the fact that they have, as a people, allowed themselves always to be dictated to and presided over men who had never really had their best interests at heart.

The Tsars are a case in point and what followed afterwards only proves what I said and the government they have today is little better.

I'm a writer self-exiled in Russia trying to keep my thoughts together and this Blog was started for my sake primarily.

Then, on a day when I read on the BBC site about a teenager who abducted and repeatedly raped a 15-year old girl I get to talk to girls here, in the city of St Peterburg, who in broad daylight they are afraid of being abducted and gang-raped by Mafia types or locally connected youths.

In either case the Police will do nothing as they will have been warned that should a complaint be followed "it never happened" and the world goes on its way, supeficially calm, collected and civilised.

At least in Britain the boy got caught, he ended up in court and his life will be wrecked. But here...

There is a Russian trait not to think too deeply about events but to roll with the blows. The Mafia is so strong here that every business pays protection. And the Police are so ill-trained, poorly supervised and chronically underpaid that they are on the extortion business themselves in order to make ends meet and in the pay of every local Mafia gang, politician and underworld boss who likes to buy them.

What is tragic is that there must be many of them who want to do something about it and can't. How do you change a culture as endemically corrupt as that?

How do you learn to work in a different way when the different way can get you hurt or worse?

How can you learn to respect the law when every symbol of the law has stood and still stands for oppression?