Space tourism, and the unspoken US victory in space

I know this may not make much sense, but the ruso vehicles seem to garner
greater confidence than USA... proof is that wealthy individuals have opted
to fly the old work horse soyuz. (Ok ok so there really hasnt been a choice
unless you are a retired NASA astronaut and higher level politician ;-)

But the point is that the ruskies have successfully marketed and sold a seat
ticket on their vehicles, so the odds are good that if they outfit the Buran
with a stretch body (stretch limo to space? ;-) they may very well be able
to supply seats for a number of international lottery players. Did I miss
read that the payload could be as much as 200 tons? average weight of
'customer" at 400 lbs (seat, box lunch, champagne bottle, T-shirt)
Hmmm 400,000 lbs devided by 400 lbs....

Shoot, you could piggy back lots of souvenirs merchandise and even a
satellite payload as well!

What do you think...is it the ruskies to the rescue?