A quarter century ago, Russia was a strange and difficult place. Article content

When I was there to research a series on Russian hockey in winter 1999, mighty Russia was on its knees. The ruble had collapsed the previous August. On every street corner, young women sold themselves to survive. Their older sisters and mothers and grandmothers stood in the snow selling what they had to sell — cracked picture frames and broken lamps. Article content Article content

It was the very brief interval between the massive tyranny of communism and the massive tyranny of ex-KGB thug Vladimir Putin. The Russian economy might be in tatters, but hope that the nation might become a functioning, enlightened democracy was at an all-time high.

What had emerged instead was the Wild West, with rival mobs

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