We promised that things would get better, but things were getting worse and worse, ... Cold War.

If we knew there was a Russian family around, we'd try to get together, especially around holidays. Although the former Soviet states are now separate, we still feel ties together with the people of Russia or Ukraine or Belarus or Serbia. We were brought up with this culture and religion. Especially here in the U.S., it's important to keep our religion and heritage.

Probably because many people do not want it to work fast. The spiritual matrix of the people is predominantly tuned to beautiful lies rather than the bitter truth.

I wrote a letter to Gorbachev warning him that trouble was brewing. He replied, 'Alexander, you overestimate their intelligence and courage.' In July, I resigned. I said, 'Something's cooking, I can sense it.' He ignored me and went on holiday,

We were in an open field waiting for the arrival of an official, ... We discussed everything, we interrupted each other and said, 'That thing must be changed and that one's intolerable ... everything's intolerable.'

Our envy of others devours us most of all