And Mr. Wingfield’s superiority complex isn’t on display at all, or anything, in this piece. God, I’d rather read Exile at this point, and that’s saying a lot, coming from me.
P.S. I haven’t forgotten this post and the questions it raises. I’ve just been busy. But I will have a breather soon.
Natalia A. 
Hmm… as a foreigner living in Russia, I’m sorry to say the BBC article sounds painfully accurate to me. Except for the thing about the migration cards. They were in Russian only for just about a year (2006); before that they were bilingual.
Don’t doubt that foreigners find it difficult in Russia. Hell, anything I ever did or said can be suspect well, because, I have an American education. That’s beside all the prejudice against Ukrainians.
But I thought the tone of the piece was very typical of the standard BBC line on the Russians. And I don’t like that tone, I don’t like where it’s coming from. I also don’t think it’s as simple as a Russian inferiority complex to the Brits.
I think pieces like that promote more alienation than they do understanding.
Well, the BBC is always smug, after all.
The BBC is especially smug when it comes to Russia and the U.S. (perhaps there are other countries I am missing here, of course). Ukraine, for example, is treated as a scrappy little freedom loving nation (if it wasn’t for all those easterners who are, poor things, paid by Yanukovich to side with the Kremlin, or something).
I don’t know what’s worse, honestly.