[alexbookhyip]

"They wanted and expected a western European style system to follow communism but got corruption and banditry. But anger at the current system for its failures does not automatically mean they have nostalgia for the past."

Forgive me for nit-picking here, but this type of statement has begun to bother me more and more.
While it goes without saying that there is no small amount of corruption within the current Russian government(no different than America) , the popular opinion here in the west of it being a cold, godless,mafia controled quasi-dictatorship, is just simply not the case.
Russia may not have the same style of democracy as we here in the west, but it is precisely because of the theivery and corruption that went on(not to mention iterferance from western powers) after the collapse of communism that it has had to adapt.
If nothing else, the fact that the two men in the very highest position in the government(Medvedev and Putin)are both devout Orthodox Christians, is a tremendous step forward.

"...there was a feeling of grace in them which is not there anymore."

Also, forgive me once again for nit-pickery, but whether or not an individual church has grace doesnt seem like something that could be determined by one or two visits.
Why would the Holy Spirit favor a church that is negected or in disrepair, then abandon it once it has been restored?