I see that the seasonal influx of people who can't tell the difference between an expense and an investment go to you again.
But this is not important. What I really care about is one short and clear reply: how much for your Scooby Doo lunch pail?
It is indeed a tragedy. My GF is from Ukraine but there was a time when all she consumed was Russian TV and it was 90% talk and game shows, literally the electronic media equivalent of the imperial Roman bread and games strategy to appease the masses. And it had a lot of propaganda for internal consumption masquerading as news.
During one of her rants that were targeted at explaining to me how good it would be under Russian government and how rich the country is with its export of petrodollars, I had enough and started to ask her what kind of cars and appliances are used in Russia, to which she proudly replied with a list of Western, Korean, Chinese and Japanese brands. Let us just say that she didn't appreciate it at all when I tried to explain to her that a country which export resources to buy finished goods is usually called a colony.
Russia had the potential to be a great country. The tragedy is, to paraphrase Shimon Peres, that for the last hundred or so of years they never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
He would be a fool if he did because a bike riding watch wearing wife is a keeper.
Never settle for less than the best. Get the Rolex and trade the wife.