It's quite a strange death of the area. It was once the cool place to be, became oversaturated, lost its sheen and lost the cool rich kids who used to go to bars and restaurants there. Now all that remains are empty overpriced restaurants which all look the same.

Not personally, and certainly not with taxis or deliveries. But I did hear from a friend who lives in the Oblast that a couple of petrol stations nearby were closed for a few hours. It didn't stop him or anyone getting fuel, they just had to drive a few km to a different petrol station.

The airport that we arrived at didn't want to let us get off the plane and told the pilot we would have to fly 15 minutes to the other Moscow airport our plane was supposed to arrive at. Eventually, they let us off. I got out of the airport 8 hours after I was supposed to arrive.

i think somebody probably invented what is effectively a variation of tonnato on lettuce before that

Well, in London yes.

so for example someone from spain, i.e a latin country, would be "any other white" etc as would mexicans, as would americans