Thanks for sharing. Good to know and welcome back home.
I had a Russian student out here this semester (man in his mid-40s, who immigrated to the US from Moscow, during the mid-1990s), who told me basically the same thing about Russian society. It was really interesting to talk to him, because he could provide a unique perspective on both Russia and America. One of the things he was always adamant about in class discussion and in private was how Americans are really spoiled, which he meant as both a compliment and a valid criticism. His point was that we whine and moan here constantly about everything and think that we have it really bad because a few police rough up a guy or because the government has this or that scandal, when, in reality, are society is one of the most open and transparent on the globe. In Russia, he said, your relations with the authorities, particularly local ones and the police, are almost always managed by under the table cash exchanges and, if you didn't have the cash, then you were **** out of luck. This applied to the USSR (which he thought was actually better than the RF), but mostly to the Russian Federation. While I imagine things have gotten a bit better since then, at least on the corruption end, it's still completely entrenched. It may never go away, as you say with China.
It really made me even more thankful to be an American, despite how dysfunctional we often are.
