And sometimes, more dangerously, the hope was that the fake army would draw fire, sparing troops elsewhere.
"More dangerously, the culture of exceptionalism stays, and with it the message that security agencies are still above the law".
Far more dangerously, the Rossiya has long been infested by criminal gangs controlling its sinister corridors and gloomy arcades.
But, more dangerously, the many thousands of Albanians with guns of their own are continuing to settle scores.
But, more dangerously, the debate sharpened old tribal and regional grudges, polarising the country between "Bananas" (yes) and "Oranges" (no), the symbols used to help illiterate voters.
But power has a way of instilling a desire for action and, perhaps more dangerously, the confidence that it will succeed.
Even more dangerously, the gulf between business and the rest of the country is widening: opinion polls show that American businesspeople are losing faith in their country even as ordinary Americans are losing faith in business.
Less dramatically, but more dangerously, the patina of tyre-rubber and grease on the freeways, baked for months on end by the desert sun, is moistened into pure slick.
