One Reason I'm Not Visiting Russia Anytime Soon...

In a former life, when I was employed by Stac Electronics, Previo, or FutureTrade, I visited Russia a dozen or so times (mostly St. Petersburg, but also Moscow and Vladivostok).  I've even driven there a few times, once with a friend (driving from Tallinn, Estonia to St. Petersburg, Russia) and once on my own (making a grand circuit from Helsinki, Finland north and east through Murmansk and St. Petersburg, Russia, and then back to Tallinn, Estonia).  Since my visits there, Putin has cemented power in his thugocracy and I'm no longer comfortable with personal security there.  But there's another reason why I'm not going there, and especially not driving there:


We have our share of bad drivers here in the U.S.; I see them every time I drive somewhere. But I've been to some places where the drivers are far worse; Russia, Costa Rica, Thailand, and the Phillipines are amongst those places. There's a reckless disregard for life and limb in those places that is amazingly pervasive – so much so that you'd think evolution would take care of this problem within a generation or so...