Dreams of My Office

NOVOSIBIRSK, Russia — Sometimes I fantasize about turning this vacation into an assignment. To that end, I imagine what my imaginary editor in New York would want from my four days on the train. Probably a discussion on how ordinary Russians feel about the seven year presidency of Vladimir Putin.

***

Vasily, 23, is not a temperamental man, he spends most of the day staring out the window. But the young man gets impassioned when questioned about his country's president.

"Putin?" the reporter asks in his limited Russian.

"Da, da." he replies. "Putin good."

But what is so great about Putin? That he revived the economy at a time when the price of oil, a key Russian commodity, has tripled in price? That he keeps the country's various political factions and ethnic minorities in check with a rapidly expanded surveillance bureau? That most people Vasily's age can't afford their own housing, and are forced to live with their parents for decades thanks to spiraling housing prices? Vasily hides behind that simple four-letter English word, and doesn't say more to an outsider.

***

Hmm. It's a little thin, even for a speculative trend story that tries to read the mood of a nation by talking to a few random people.

Perhaps I should leave work out of this vacation.