Five hundred dollars speaks volumes: $1,500 can do miracles. And you might not want to know what $5,000 worth of Russian databases is ready to tell you. (Well, I didn't have enough cash to properly test it.)
Russia is a wonderland for a CAR junkie.
My ears first perked up when I bought a train ticket from St. Petersburg to Moscow in early 1998. A hefty woman selling tickets at the train station demanded my ID and dutifully typed my name and passport number into her computer. When a printer spewed out my yellow ticket, my name was on it.
Later, I asked a friend who runs IT services for a new Moscow magnate if there was a way to get a copy of a database listing all train tickets. He said: "Sure, I have