Quote

All the real things in Russia are done in the villages.

The thing I miss about Russia the most is what is called 'black bread.' It's rye bread, and everyone eats it. I slice mine up and put sunflower oil and salt on it... the best thing ever. It was like a little treat for me when I was a kid.

Russia is very big and very varied. People are different in different regions.

Lots of businesses built in the early 1990s were not very transparent, not only by Russians, but also by foreigners.

Russia does not have a modern economy: it's a petro-power. The only thing it sells that the world wants to buy is oil and natural gas. When was the last time anyone bought a Russian computer? A Russian car? A Russian cell phone? Russia is so dependent on high energy prices that if oil falls below $100 a barrel, the Kremlin can't meet payroll.

I grew up in Russia. We had a telephone line, but a load of our neighbours didn't. It became a shared resource for the whole apartment complex. People would come and knock on the door and ask to call their family in another city.

Russia has to have a technology company of global meaning sooner or later. We should take the depth of technical culture we have here and make it available worldwide.

The way I understand it, the Russians are sort of a combination of evil and incompetence... sort of like the Post Office with tanks.