Thanks for posting this video, it was lovely seeing you and your friend walking around Moscow. I spent some time there on a couple of occasions in the 90s on a work trip and it's one of the most beautiful cities I've been to. I was surprised at the US businesses then too and also there was an upmarket Irish supermarket. It was over 20 years ago and hostilities with the West were more recent. It's great to see how vibrant and cosmopolitan Moscow has become. We originally stayed at the Cosmos hotel which was pretty barren and there was nothing around that area then we moved to the SwissHotel near the GUM and it was just like being in the centre of London, even at that time, vibrant with fashion, shopping, the GUM, restaurants, the Arbat etc. There was even a McDonalds around the corner. We were doing a project with MosFilm (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosfilm) and I spent a day at their studios in this huge "casting" room that had literally hundreds of filing cabinets with Russian actors going back to the early 20's. We weren't allowed to take copies of any files and I thought none of them would turn up as extras and that most of them would be dead but a few from the 1950s were still kicking around and turned up on the production.
Russian people are beautiful. They're genuine and warm-hearted. It's such a shame the US spends so much time vilifying them because it's one of the oldest and richest cultures in Europe. I remember this book market that a friend took me to in Moscow where they were selling Russian art books and they were all beautifully printed and very cheap. I still have a couple. I can't remember what it was called, maybe it still exists and you could film that for one of your episodes.
It's ironic that Russia has now become a sanctuary for journalists from the West. I hope you do a lot more films, just walking around showing people the truth about what an amazing city Moscow is and how smart the people are. That's more effective in a lot of ways than the political chat.
Hi - thank you so much for this! Yes in my experience Russia is the polar opposite of what the West claims about it. They say it is dangerous but it is far safer than the average Western city. They say the women are desperate to leave/portray them as virtual prostitutes, but the women here are wholesome and lovely and very happy and proud to be Russian. I have come to view Russia as what the West was like pre-globalism, before "trade" deals destroyed our local manufacturing and flooded our countries with crap petrochemical products, and before corporations ruled our lives. I think this is why the West targets Russia so badly - because they don't own it yet!!!
I will definitely be making more Kiwi in Moscow episodes, the only thing slowing us down is that Ksenia has been travelling - she speaks fluent Spanish and Portuguese and has been travelling around South and Latin America. Once she returns to Moscow we will continue the series. Glad you liked it :)
The series is awesome Suzi, I loved it. you and Ksenia are winning formula - I look forward to seeing more. Maybe you could do a series of interviews of cool younger people who are starting businesses (music, arts, food, software, fashion). You're in a great position to do that.
It's ironic isn't it that women are happy and carefree and proud in Russia yet in the West they are portrayed as the opposite and are vilified by our media in the nastiest possible way.
The whole of the last century has been a con game by the banks. Before 1914 the US had no central Banks for 40 years and it was the most prosperous time, then J P Morgan orchestrated a market panic in 1907 and it led to the formation of the Fed in at the end of 1913, which in turn led to two world wars and a consolidation of Banker power and Russia being set up as the "enemy" of the US even though before 1913 Russia was probably the US's greatest Ally.
The anti Russia hysteria in the media is failing, it's gotten so over the top and so stupid that people don't believe any of it any more.