Sorry to troll so hard and disrespect tragedies. I'm a US citizen and reached the age of reason too soon after the events for textbooks to cover it, but too late after for it to ever be covered in the media. In fact, I thought the Russian Mafia was non-existent until specifically looking it up. I'm genuinely interested in understanding why Russians don't hate Putin, the modern KGB which certainly doesn't seem to act in Russians' favor, and the complete failure of the KGB-supporting government to rein in Russian corruption, but lack knowledge on the subject due to Russia's anti-information policies keeping credible information sparse. I was going to plainly ask for information on this topic, but knew my chances were slim. Through my deception in posting this, I'm hoping emotions will fuel a more vigorous debate with lots of specific points and counter-points. Again, sorry to be so dishonest and offensive -- the post doesn't reflect my true feelings. I'm hoping the conversation won't be derailed into an 80%+ anti-US thread and'd like to be clear that I have no USG sympathies.