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browntsunami's avatar

I am a prisoner in my own country. I'm not allowed, still, on trains or planes. However, I need to be honest to myself and not take the jab, regardless of it being inconvenient. I daydream about life in other countries, as I travelled extensively in my working life, I think the transition would not be a shocking one for me. I do have a wife to consider, as well as relatives, so my escape is through your adventures and this most enjoyable interview. My daydreams are more vivid because of these.

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JustPlainBill's avatar

This is an especially interesting piece. I'm a cold war baby, studied Russian in HS and college (over half a lifetime ago) and have read and thoroughly enjoyed countless works of Russian literature. Also, being an avid chess player in my youth, I became quite familiar with the Soviet players who overwhelmingly dominated world chess for decades. You couldn't talk chess or read the literature without constantly being exposed to Soviet chess and Soviet players. But despite all that, I've never been to Russia; it was always on my short list of places I would go--but somehow "life got in the way" and now it may be too late.

I hope this woman continues to prosper. It's kind of weird how the West and Russia seem somehow to have passed one another in the night, where now Russia actually seems more aligned with a set of moral and religious values we used to look at as our "Western heritage." Russia in many ways is now more "western" than the West.

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