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I mean that at least 80% of the Russian people feel destitute. It's the people who had their past and future taken from them - they don't get paid - many of them face a wall. They have nowhere to go.

We have been getting out of the situation where we found ourselves in the early '90s, when the Soviet Union disappeared and the Russian Federation became what it is - you know, with no borders, with no budget, no money, and with huge problems starting with lack of food and so on and so forth.

Many Russia experts note the deep and sad capacity of the Russian people for suffering.

Long term I do believe internationally there is a huge misunderstanding of Russia.

Russia will not soon become, if it ever becomes, a second copy of the United States or England - where liberal value have deep historic roots.

Business in Russia was not being done like in the West, with contracts. In Russia, hundreds of millions of dollars were going forward and backward by word of mouth.

Russia is tough. The history, the land, the people - brutal.

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.

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.

From the country with limited hope to grow your own business and express your own personality, Russia has become the land of significant opportunity.