Mornings on the outskirts of Moscow

Out on the bike today, on a different route, I saw this example of what is considered smart suburban housing in Moscow. Tastelessly ostentatious buildings are crammed together on tiny plots (since gardens do not confer status in Russian business circles) in what would be lovely countryside but for the smog hanging in the air, the roar of traffic and the general feeling that within five years there is a strong likelihood that a fifteen-storey block of flats will be erected, possibly illegally, right in front, blocking all your view and light, and that any attempt to oppose its construction might well be met with savage violence which the state will do little or nothing to prevent.