ahhhhh now i understand what george bush meant

when he said he looked into putin's eyes and saw his soul. from a piece about the saga of a railway worker who was involved in an accident and sentenced to 4 years in a labor camp.

Nowhere is the privilege -- and abuse -- of power more visible to ordinary Russians than on the roads, where politicians and bureaucrats, who have special license plates and blue lights for their luxury vehicles, speed recklessly, force other drivers aside and generally flout the rules. At the same time, ordinary citizens are subject to constant harassment from traffic police, who routinely demand small bribes. These irritants have become the source of open anger because many motorists can easily imagine themselves suffering Shcherbinsky's fate.