Interesting observations. So, you think if Putin stopped making those around him more rich and powerful, he'd be deposed? This infrastructure... Are we talking solely about the people who built it, or about the culture that allowed for it, as well? This is mind-blowing. Your intimate connection to the nuclear program makes for quite a few amazing stories to geeks like myself, I Imagine. I remember you talking about Feynman, among others. Just being able to drop such names makes me moist. If you were God, what would you change about the current Russian system to make it better?Putin would be nothing without the infrastructure that put him where he is and keeps him there for their own benefit.
Sakharov was a town hero not just because of what he did and what he stood for, but because he was a personal friend of many of the scientists where I grew up.
Russians have always been good people under a bad system.