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I don't have many Russian friends. My childhood friends are dead - either from bad health, or they died in perestroika.

In the Russian experience, although the Russian state is oppressive, it is their state, it is part of their fabric, and so the relation between Russian citizens and their state is complicated.

I have some Russian friends. But probably only 10 percent. I don't hang out usually in the big Russian communities in Brooklyn and New Jersey.

I feel very uneasy with a lot of aspects of the Russian life and the Russian people.

The Russians are extreme people: they are generous but crazy at the same time. They always have something to say, and I really like that.

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

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.

From being a patriotic myth, the Russian people have become an awful reality.

The Russians are a very sentimental people.