Heavy security and party mom
5 p.m., Thursday, Gorokhovaya ulitsa: A security guard slinging an AK-47 gets out of a company car and strides into a local bank. I hesitated and didn’t take out my camera in time to get off a shot … or maybe a subconscious survival instinct kicked in …
8 p.m., Wednesday, Gorokhovaya ulitsa: A mom guzzling Black Russian in a can (literally, cognac, coke and flavoring in a can) browses the dairy section of the local convenience store Дикси (Dixie) with her schoolboy son.
September 24, 2008 at 7:09 pm
So in Russia it’s perfectly legal to drink alcohol from an open container in a public place?
September 25, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Not legal, but often tolerated. I think it stems from the Soviet era, when nobody really went out to cafes or bars. Plus, alcohol is cheaper from your local round-the-clock “produkti” store, which sells an incredibly varied assortment of beer, beer snacks and cigarettes. Finally, when you have all these great parks to drink in, why bother going to some pricey establishment?
September 25, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Well, that is a point. Compare a smoke-ridden, dingy Stoughton, Wisconsin bar to a huge park on Peter-the-Great scale–the park definitely wins as the best place to relax and have a drink.