Yesterday some guy — a political-business operator — told me that AvtoVAZ is drowning in unsold inventory. More than 150,000 cars have piled up in the lots, which is a completely unprecedented number. So basically, AvtoVAZ is doomed, wage delays will start soon, and that will trigger major problems in the Samara region, which will go from being a donor region to one dependent on federal subsidies. So I’m thinking this scenario will keep unfolding like this: 1. they’ll lay everyone off and stop paying wages; 2. they’ll stop paying state employees too; 3. officials, trying to make up for their losses, will start stealing even more; 4. people will revolt and say, "Enough!"; 5. and they’ll go join the Dissenters’ Marches (opposition protest rallies); 6. the people will be led by the charismatic Boris Nemtsov, creator of the mighty Solidarnost movement (by the time of the Mass Riots, the charismatic Boris Nemtsov will just have returned from Mauritius — tanned and elegant. And as we know, he already has the white trousers.); 7. the uprising masses will overthrow the government and Putin; 8. the government will be headed by the charismatic Boris Nemtsov; 9. within a short time, the charismatic Boris Nemtsov will finish wrecking everything, and his friends Fridman and Prokhorov will steal everything they failed to steal under Putin; 10. the Chechens will break away; 11. people will revolt even harder and drive the charismatic Boris Nemtsov back to Mauritius; 12. people will call on Putin to restore order and bring the Chechens back into the fold; 13. Putin will give the Chechens a bunch of cash, and to save the nation he’ll ban elections, the internet, and every TV channel except Channel One; 14. Putin’s friends Fridman and Prokhorov will steal everything they didn’t quite finish stealing under Putin 1.0 and the charismatic Boris Nemtsov; 15. the crisis will end and Putin will have money again for state employees; 16. we’ll all go on quietly hissing away in our now-banned little LiveJournals and waiting for the next crisis; 17. sooner or later the next crisis will come, and AvtoVAZ will once again be drowning in unsold inventory; 18. they’ll lay everyone off and stop paying wages; and around it goes. Maybe we really are in the Matrix after all? And maybe Fridman and Prokhorov are the ones running it?