On New Year’s Day in Russia, there were reports of a sudden shortage of pet rats, a new law banning fireworks, and popular adulation of foreign football coaches. Although 2007 closed with political relations between Russia and the West at a particularly low point, East-West trade has flourished – once again with the Skoda automobile as the unlikely trade ambassador. “The quality of the goods have improved markedly,” one expert told the New York Times. “The Russian consumers knows they are buying quality goods. They know that Skoda, for example, really is made by Volkswagen.”