Now that Russia has given up its ridiculous ambition to become an advanced capitalist nation in the space of a historical nano-second, Russians can revert to their favourite pursuits: relieving their anguish with sardonic humour and suspecting that their plight is the result of a grand conspiracy.
Not that these pastimes - perfected throughout years of deprivation and communist party politicking - ever really died out. But the strength of the liberal argument did worry a small minority for a short time in the early 1990s that the market might really deliver up what it promised and the jokes would have to be changed. They should not have been concerned.
A combination of Russia's inefficient political system, the desire of a small elite to get rich quick at the nation's expense and the inability of the IMF and others to understand how a state-planned economy can be reformed - even had its advice been followed Russia would still have failed - ensured that everything collapsed bang on schedule. That means the satire can carry on and unlike in Soviet times it is freely published for all to enjoy.
Foreign visitors don't even need to leave their hotel as the Inside Russia Guide tells you everything you wanted to know about Russia but didn't know who to ask, such as the impact of the Nato bombings of Yugoslavia, recent Kremlin sex scandals, opinions on oligarchs and politicians from Boris Berezovsky to Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov, the spread of tuberculosis in Russian prisons and the communist party's view on homosexuals which is not overly positive. "Reds cannot be blue," communist leader general Makashov is quoted as saying. Blue is a Russian euphemism for gay.
Russians of all persuasions, both sexual and political, are united in their opposition to the bombing of their Serbian brethren in Yugoslavia. In a section called mood of the month, the Inside Russia Guide reports on "the long-awaited Russian national idea".
"Russians are a strange people [sic]. They can put up with many things, suffer many privations, work without pay for months, be led by foolish people, subsist on a few dollars a month and enjoy an ice-cream cone in a 30 degrees frost. The only thing they seem to be unable to do is live without a Grand National Idea.
"The country was sinking in ideal-less despair when suddenly the West has helped us as it did before when the Russian intelligentsia ardently embraced and adopted the crazy ideas of an obscure German economist called Karl Marx. This time the saving idea was supplied by more elevated persons - the leaders of the Nato countries. The moment their bombs started to fall on Serbs, Russians sighed with great relief - at last! At last they knew whom to hate, and hatred, as is well known, is the easiest, the most natural and most unifying emotion."
Beware. Any conversation on any subject in Moscow these days is likely to end up in a diatribe against the West. A meeting with former finance minister Boris Fedorov is supposed to be about the rights of minority shareholders, an issue on which Fedorov has campaigned fearlessly in the face of considerable opposition.But Euromoney made the mistake of slipping in a Nato question and those already feeble minorities were quickly diluted out of existence.
Nato didn't worry about Rwanda, didn't worry about Angola, nor for that matter about Chechnya when the Russian themselves were beating the hell out of independence seekers. Therefore it's complete hypocrisy and double standards for Nato to care about Kosovo, argues Fedorov. And he doesn't take the point that while international military action is certainly selective, Milosevic's own credentials as a regular guy to go to the sauna with do seem in question.
Then we're trawling through the entire Western and Russian history book spotting Western fouls and Russian tackles. Colonialism, Cossacks sent home to Russia to their deaths at the end of World War Two, alliances with Stalin... hardly an hour seems to have gone by when Americans and Europeans weren't jointly engaged in some dreadful deed. And Russian wrongs? These were committed by foreigners too -- the Tsars were Germans, Stalin a Georgian, other communist leaders Jewish.
But Fedorov does make one incontestable case. He thinks the IMF shouldn't give any more money to the Russian government until it cleans up corruption and there should be a tally for the number of people sent to jail before the next tranche comes through. Otherwise why don't they just send the money and stop pretending that reform is an issue.
"Why are you still pretending that the IMF and G7 are sponsoring economic reform in Russia. What is all this bullshit about programmes, monetary stability, promising a surplus in the budget. Let's just put one line in the US budget - $20 billion for keeping Russia quiet. You don't have to send missions, you don't have to answer questions from journalists about why the reforms failed. If we could have $40 billion we could stop collecting taxes altogether."
Even with a Russian sense of humour, wars in Kosovo and economic failure are difficult to make the stuff of levity. Not so sex scandals for which Moscow is currently a breeding ground, no pun intended. Their plots are so similar, however, that Russian journalist Zakhar Lebedev has the following advice: "There are so many real or alleged sauna scenes with naked politicians playing with naked girls circulated by mass media I suggest that to save time and money all of the Russian political elite agree to be shot in one group sex tape in a huge sauna." And what about president Yeltsin? "Suddenly Russian politicians have started to envy president Yeltsin. His physical condition has made him immune to any sexually compromising shots or tapes."
Russians are at their creative best on matters of sex. The country may have leaking toilets and cars held together with string but Russian computer wizards can produce a videotape to order of anyone doing anything to anybody in any state of undress. Moscow's Sirius night club has launched the Monica Lewinsky cigar room where presumably more than smoking goes on. The former Hungry Duck, where young Russian women became intoxicated and took off their clothes, is reportedly on the road to Kiev having proved too hot for the Moscow city authorities.