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This looks lie a badly-crafted lie but still sends signals … (expounded in comments) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/13/vladimir-putin-says-he-resorted-to-taxi-driving-after-fall-of-soviet-union
theguardian.com
Vladimir Putin says he resorted to driving a taxi after fall of Soviet Union
Russian leader says it is ‘unpleasant to talk about’ his cab work in that period as he laments Soviet Union’s demise
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The first thing to strike the new arrival, whether in Petersburg or Cronstadt, is the isvostchik or Russian cabby. New York cabbies, Paris cabbies, London cabbies, dwindle into blurry insignificance alongside of the Isvostchik! He is a supreme effort on the part of nature! There is no handy taximetre to check his barefaced demands, and only a mythical police tariff to price his mileage. It is a part and parcel of his training as an isvostchik to ask for double his due. That he does not get it paid is a mere detail: he does not even expect to succeed in his effrontery! Quite the contrary, in fact; for if he were to succeed, it would give him violent pangs for not having asked for more! and, moreover, should he succeed in his demands, he regards his fare as a fool (doorak).
Things seen in Russia, by Steveni, William Barnes, (1913), pg 17
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