All the real things in Russia are done in the villages.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The great drama of Russian history has been between its state and society. Put simply, Russia has always had too much state and not enough society.
There is no single field of activity, not a single institution, free of the most brutal sort of corruption. Russia has bred a world-class mafia.
Russia is very big and very varied. People are different in different regions.
You must go deeper into Russia - 150 kilometres from Moscow or more, and look there. The kids are fed with cattle feed - people don't get paid for half a year.
Everything in Russia is made of cement - phone booths, fence posts and light bulbs.
Much that we read of Russia is imagination and desire only.
I don't have any opinions about Russians. There are celebrity persons in each country. Different people do different things.
I live a very different life now, with incredible privileges, but looking back I realise that growing up in Russia gave me tools that other people don't necessarily have - such as the will to push that bit further, to make things happen, to succeed.
Before I left Russia in 1999, I was living in a very poor factory town with my family and friends, and nothing was ever going to change.
The way the business things work in Russia is you have to meet people, you have to go through a certain amount of etiquette and business things are done just simply by a shake of the hand and whether they like you or not.