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I had a minor in Russian history, and this was at the time when the big Cold War was going on.

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.

There was something about the idea of Russia that I found very intriguing, and I think I had romanticized it a lot.

I was among one of the first entrepreneurs to start building their own private enterprise when Perestroika began in Russia and the state initiated its first market-oriented reforms.

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

I am also one of those persons who were transformed, who grew out of the Soviet system and transformed myself into the new Russia.

When I was young, about 18 or 19, I read all the Dostoyevsky novels, which made me want to go to St. Petersburg. So I went, and I was so inspired.

We were fortunate to have the Russians as our childhood enemies. We practiced hiding under our desks in case they had the temerity to drop a nuclear weapon.

I didn't choose Russia but Russia chose me. I had been fascinated from an early age by the culture, the language, the literature and the history to the place.