Huge differences between US, Russia

Did you see where Russian President Dmitri Medvedev FIRED the Mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov? Can you even imagine that here in the US? It's as though President Obama fired Mayor Bloomberg in New York. Bizarre. Not only that but Moscow's Mayor's wife is a well-known billionaire due to her construction company and all the business she gets. Check this out: Under Luzhkov's long tenure, Moscow underwent an astonishing makeover from a shabby and demoralized city into a swaggering and stylish metropolis. As the prices for Russia's oil and gas soared and foreign investment poured into the vastly underdeveloped country, Russia's capital sprouted gigantic construction projects — malls, offices and soaring apartment towers. Much of that work was done by the construction company headed by Luzhkov's wife, Yelena Baturina, who is believed to be Russia's only female dollar billionaire. Suspicions swirled consistently that corruption by Luzhkov fed his wife's wealth. Sure, we have problems, heaven knows, of all different kinds of corruption here in the States but, here again, can you imagine the size of the scandal--or scandals--if the mayor of a major American city had a wife who owned a construction company who then got all the plum, highly profitable construction jobs for that same city? All hell would break loose. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we're better than them--again, we have our problems with corruption and graft. I'm just saying we are two radically different cultures, by a long shot, no question. Link to original story: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130180253