"Back in the USSR"

So, our car is sitting in the endless Moscow traffic, and the driver asks me whether the traffic is as bad as this in the United States.  The answer is: Yes.

This caused me to write down a few other similarities between Russia and the U.S. right now:
* Cell phones are everywhere.
* Gas is priced the same, around $2.08 a gallon (15 rubles per litre).
* bp gas stations are rampant.
* housing downtown is popular, and expensive.
* if you ask someone a question about presidential politics (as I did), you get the same 15 minute rant in both countries, including an allusion to stealing the election, and serving only the rich.
* the middle class is in decline.
* commutes are measured in hours, not miles.
* democracy is suggested to be in decline.
* the elderly are losing their benefits.

** And astronauts in BOTH COUNTRIES go to Russia to get launched into outer space **
((3 years ago I took my son Willie to Moscow, and he got to see the American scientists working with the Russians in the space center - - their Houston))