IN a supermarket in one of Moscow’s vast, litter-strewn housing complexes, a saleswoman is trying to put blackened potatoes into the bag of a customer who has been waiting in line for half an hour. In another line, shoppers inspect a frozen block of fish trying to guess if the fish is rotten. They know from bitter experience that fish is often allowed to unfreeze, and, if it spoils, it is refrozen and sold.
Meat is rolled into the store on a little carriage, and pandemonium ensues as customers grab for the meat, which a salesman is throwing onto the counter. He is indifferent to their struggling and behaves as if he were feeding animals.
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