Ambassador Lawrence's words greatly pleased Markov, and he responded, "The gap between Soviet Union and East Africa is still considerable. Moscow developed by concentrating the resources of the entire country. It has outstanding workers, industries, and leaders."
"Across Soviet Union's vast territory, there are clearly many towns still crying out for development and construction. At present, East Africa is ahead of us in this respect."
As the capital of Soviet Union, Moscow concentrated resources to a far greater degree than East Africa's Rhine City, as well as the political centers of many countries around the world.
In the economic sphere, Moscow was Soviet Union's absolute core. East Africa's capital, meanwhile, had never become East Africa's economic center, and New Frankfurt had even been supported to shoulder part of its industrial development functions.
In terms of transportation, Moscow was the absolute hub of the nation's highways, railways, and aviation. East Africa likewise adopted a dual-core model for highways and railways, while its aviation center was the "aviation zone" centered on Rhine City, New Frankfurt, and Kabwe.
These two aspects alone revealed the different ways East Africa and Soviet Union thought about development.
Analyzing the visible differences between the two countries' political centers, Lawrence said, "Rhine City is relatively small compared with Moscow, but Soviet Union lacks a certain refinement in urban construction."
"Yet I believe that does not matter much to you, since Soviet Union places greater emphasis on practicality."
Slavs had always been rather carefree and rough around the edges, even during the Tsarist era.
Markov did not feel there was anything wrong with that, and said with considerable pride, "Soviet Union does not possess East Africa's deep pockets. Our country began developing later than East Africa, after all, so in the economic sphere, Soviet Union places greater emphasis on