In bustling Crimea, they love Putin

New York

FROM the Russian city of Perm, on the outer edges of the Ural Mountain range, to the peninsula of Crimea, it's about 2,880 km. By car, that's a good 40 hours, give or take a few.

Undaunted, the Shvetsovs, Sergey and Irina, loaded their two young kids into the backseat of their Russian-made Lada - a little, ruby-red thing, all faded and rickety - and hit the highway one day early last month. They drove day and night, through the vast European Plain, past Moscow, down to the Black Sea, and finally, by ferry, across the Kerch Strait.