Connected (2025)

[bunniefuu]

This old man is Dim.

Hes Russian

and Im American.

Weve been friends for more

than half of my life.

We met on the eve

of the Soviet Unions collapse,

when Dim was 58,

the age I am now.

Im Dmitry Zimin... I just took

appeared on a program

whose name Ive already

forgotten,

but it doesn't matter.

I happened to be born in 1933,

by the way.

Here's also an amazing thing:

He was an American, by the way,

young enough to be my son,

and we became friends for life.

His Russian is about as good as

my English,

very bad that is.

In December 2021, a week

before Christmas,

I got a call from Dims son, Boris,

he urgently summoned me

from Chicago

to Dims bedroom in a rented

apartment

in far-away Cyprus.

There, Dim told us of his plan:

at the end of the year,

he would undergo euthanasia

in Switzerland.

I asked to be buried in ski boots.

Here's the headstone, here's

the picture

and then the inscription:

this subscriber has been

disconnected.

In 1992, during a brief period

of friendship

between our two superpowers,

we built a very successful

telecom company -

VimpelCom,

It became the first ever

Russian company

listed outside of Russia,

and the first telecommunication

start-up

listed on the New York Stock Exchange,

making us both independently wealthy.

30 years ago,

connecting people, we were

looking forward

to a very bright future.

Two months after my friends passing,

Russia invaded Ukraine.

I found myself silently grateful

that Dim didnt have to see it.

He wouldnt have to witness

the horror

and atrocity I saw the Russian army

commit in the Kyiv region.

The prosperous future for Russia,

Dims country,

and America, my homeland,

that we dreamed of in the 90s

was gone.

Our story became a poignant chronicle

of the clash between

the American dream and

Russian destiny.

When I watch this footage,

I dont know what to make of it.

Had Dim given us hints about

his plans?

Could we have figured it out?

This is probably going to be

my last journey.

In September, Dim invited us to

what he dubbed his last journey.

I assumed it was just an older

man's way

of describing an adventure.

Maybe a cruise?

Dim left Russia in January 2021,

just as Russian opposition leader

Alexei Navalny was getting arrested.

For more than 12 years,

Dims family financially backed Navalny

along with other causes fiercely

opposed by their country.

In Russia, Dim was the only one

openly doing this work.

My dear Augie, you haven't

changed a bit

since the last time I saw you.

Three months before his

assisted suicide,

no one realized that Dim

had meticulously

orchestrated every detail of

his final days.

Bringing his wife, Maya, onto

the boat

wasn't easy, but it meant

a lot to him.

He also invited a friend,

a film director,

to capture footage and

leave behind

memories for his grandchildren.

You remember everything!

Plexsys systems are in the back.

Is it okay if I tell your story, Dim?

I know he would have said, Yes.

I've thought a lot about why

he chose to end

his life on his own terms,

and why he did it before 2022.

Dim had cancer, but it

wasnt terminal.

He was beginning to lose

his memory,

which terrified him.

Whats the point of living

without

my memories? Dimd ask.

But more than anything,

he feared

witnessing the outbreak of a new

large-scale warone that the US

would warn about daily that fall.

I got excited.

Can I have a cognac? A little one.

Gentlemen, cheers! My hand is

shaking horribly.

It'll stop shaking when

I have a drink.

Our story began in the '80s,

when Russia was still part

of the USSR.

Dim was a top-secret Soviet

radio engineer,

working on developing an

anti-American m*ssile radar system.

For decades, the Americans

and Soviets

had been bitter enemies.

In the minds of most Americans,

myself included,

the Soviet Union was the

evil empire.

But then, out of the blue for us

regular folks, the new Soviet leader

Gorbachev shook things up

with the perestroika,

tore down the Berlin Wall,

and dismantled the communist

system.

Suddenly, the endless race

between

our military tech came to a halt.

Let us look forward to a future of

Clear skies.

For all mankind. Thank you.

Thank you.

We must realize that we lived under

a totalitarian regime.

A totalitarian regime cannot exist

if it has no enemies.

I think I welcomed Gorbachev from

the very beginning.

He was very appealing to me.

Gorbachev and his whole new

way of thinking.

He revolutionized politics.

I was 22, a sophomore at Stanford,

walking around the university

campus one day,

when I passed the Slavic

department door

and saw a sign advertising

an upcoming trip to the

Soviet Union.

For some reason, I was intrigued.

Just like that,

I found myself in Moscow

at the same time

that the Soviets were finding out

what perestroika meant.

There, my first deal was trading

a Walkman player with headphones

for tickets to the Bolshoi theater.

Back then, I had no idea

what the second one would

end up being.

I would say there have been three

major periods in my life.

The first period lasted 30 years.

I worked in the military-industrial

complex,

at the Mints Science Institute.

I was the deputy chief designer

of this giant

radio locator station.

Have you seen any pictures of it?

This is a radar station belonging

to Moscow's

m*ssile defense system.

The m*ssile defense systems

were developed under

an agreement with the Americans.

The famous Brezhnev-Nixon

agreement.

The most important event in

the development of Soviet-American

relations

was the visit of Leonid Brezhnev,

The General Secretary of the Central

Committee of the Communist Party

of the Soviet Union,

to the United States.

Despite the Cold Wars fear

and tension,

back then you could still see

the Soviet Leader

and the American President

together

in the same helicopter.

I was about seven or eight

years old back then.

Ten years earlier, my parents

had emigrated

from Mexico and Colombia

to the States

with 24 dollars to their name.

This was shortly after

the Cuban m*ssile Crisis,

when Russia had engaged

in nuclear

blackmail for the first time.

My father, a highly trained engineer,

worked tirelessly in various jobs.

For a while, he even pumped

gas day

and night, hustling to build a new,

peaceful life for his children.

According to that agreement,

the famous Nixon-Brezhnev

agreement,

We could have one m*ssile defense

system each.

The visit resulted in a new set

of Soviet-American

agreements, including an agreement

to prevent nuclear w*r.

We chose to deploy our m*ssile

defense system around Moscow.

The Americans chose to deploy

their m*ssile defense system,

At a place that I've forgotten the

name of, where their

m*ssile launch facilities aimed

at the Soviet Union

were located.

It's this big field.

They were guarding this place,

and we were guarding Moscow,

which, generally speaking, was

an impossible task.

Because in order to destroy

the American m*ssile launch

facilities,

which could withstand a

load of about

six kilograms per centimeter

squared,

only a direct hit could work.

They had a very sturdy armor.

On the other hand, all it would

take to destroy Moscow

was a single rocket being able

to penetrate.

Moscow could be destroyed with

one hydrogen b*mb,

So Moscow's m*ssile defense system

was money being thrown away,

no defense at all.

Brezhnev, senile and ill, lived in Moscow.

So we were making a city

defense system,

while the Americans,

their system was called Safeguard,

were protecting their strategic missiles.

The anti-m*ssile system was

only made around Moscow.

Btw, despite the fact that

decades have passed,

Im not sure that all this can be told.

Although there is nothing

like that here.

Please be careful with this

information.

There was a completely stifling

climate of secrecy.

Secrecy, and sometimes ridiculous,

utterly ridiculous secrecy,

was prioritized over efficiency.

Why has the Institute

of Physics and

Technology produced so many

geniuses,

far more than the Faculty

of Physics?

I asked myself that question too,

I knew many people there.

Hell, it was the culture.

It was almost free entry.

There was a library next door.

They had a different life.

In some ways, I was jealous of them.

Of course.

You were completely classified

personnel,

as far as I know.

Totally closed off.

So you couldn't go abroad?

Of course! No way!

All secret papers in the Soviet

Union were

divided into secret, top secret and

top secret of special importance.

In order to have access to

documents of "special

importance," you had to have this form.

Wiretapping was completely official.

The whole system was shoddy:

It all came down to the fact that

before I could even call another

city from my office,

I would have to call the authorities to

say I was ordering a long-distance call.

And I was expressly forbidden to have

a non-monitored conversation

from my apartment.

Was anyone watching? Who knows?

But, in theory, yes.

I was the head of the largest

department,

Chief Designer, Doctor of Science,

I wasnt a member of Communist party.

I've never been a member.

I found it. I have a lot...

It is necessary to say, to be honest,

that to make more tanks than

the rest of mankind,

we have largely destroyed

the country.

A country, a society, first of all

deserves respect

when it creates a decent life

for its people.

When did you feel that you were

no longer a Soviet person?

August '68,

seeing our tanks in Prague.

That's when the last Komsomol

illusions ran out for me.

I realized quite clearly that my

country was led by th*gs.

If we mark the brightest and

darkest dates

in our history on the calendar,

then I would mark as bright dates

the times that brought us

something like freedom - 90s.

This was the emergence of a free Russia.

Or at least a step

towards freedom in Russia.

Gorbachevs rise to power in the USSR

and the end of the Cold w*r

coincided with

the beginning of the telecommunication

revolution in the United States.

People on the go, busy people moving,

working, but some of them still able

to keep in touch by telephone with

business partners, customers, family,

friends, even while they're on the road.

My father's engineering instincts

had the wind at his back.

In 1983, the first commercial cellular

system was introduced in the States.

In 1990, my father and Ia young

inexperienced entrepreneur

Bought Plexsys,

a small technology company

in Corinth, Mississippi.

We used the company assets to

take out

roughly one-and-a-half million

dollars in loans.

At the same time, the new era

of peace

in the USSR meant that military radio

engineers were looking for a

way to support

themselves without state funding.

The Soviet Union still existed,

military orders had practically ended,

we werent being paid salaries.

There were also factories

other than us in this condition.

The factories were trying to find

what would

make it to market.

Flirting with any foreign companies

was encouraged.

They spat on all the secrecy,

but besides, there was no secrecy there.

We were looking for any way

to just survive.

We were engineers, after all

Were we supposed to starve?

Listen, I forgot everything, I have to get

my notes and use them as a base

Did you feel like you had to go

to work as

a street cleaner? You had a family

to support, tight?

You know I didn't. We had

some skills.

After all, radio electronics is a

pretty broad field.

I thought I'd be able to find

something to do.

At this very moment, on the other side

of the world, in a remote

suburb of Chicago,

a flamboyant Lebanese American

salesman knocked on our door.

He sold LOral cosmetics and

his name was Ed Saad.

He is driving a red? adillac

with white leather interior,

convertible,

with jewelry all over him.

I mean, completely crazy.

By the name of Ed Saad.

Do you remember Ed?

Yes!

A Lebanese American that lived

in a suburb of Chicago,

by the name of Ed Saad, came to

us and said,

Ive been reading about your

company.

Ive been reading about your

infrastructure equipment.

The Soviet Union needs your

equipment.

Your system is designed

for small cities.

Its the perfect system for Russia.

If you come, you can sell millions

of your systems in Russia.

He actually convinced my dad,

after about 2 or 3 months

of dialogue,

that we should go.

It took me about six months

to get convinced

that we should try and see what

would happen.

So the deal he made with us was:

I will charge you a consulting

fee of $50,000.

It was his fee.

$25,000 wed pay before we went,

and $25,000 we pay if we signed

an agreement.

We had to use several of our

12 credit cards

to pay the expenses. It was crazy.

We were driven by the LOreal

cosmetic

success in Moscow, my experience with

tickets to the Bolshoi, and the data:

even the landline density in

the Soviet Union

was only 17 phones for every

100 people.

Simply put, the people could

not connect

with each other!

Before boarding the PA74 Pan-American

flight

from JFK to Moscow, we wrote wills

and bought life insurance.

We decided to either become

American pioneers

in Russia or to leave our family

some money.

Alive, I had a negative net worth;

dead, I would have been worth

$1 million.

In our top-secret office Vympel - RTI

we started to get visits from foreigners.

It was completely unbelievable.

It was known that in our secret

radio technical institute,

my lab was starting to do something

different.

Where did Fabela come from?

We really latched onto the business

of cell phones.

Fabela supplied us with a base station

and a switch at his own expense.

He brought and gave us

about 15 of these phones.

When we first walked around

with the phones,

we loved it.

And he invited us to get into this

business together.

When we were going into these

institutes,

they were top-secret institutes,

and we were going in as Americans.

From our perspective, that was

extraordinary.

How in the world were we,

you know, if this had happened

three years ago,

hed be in jail, I'd be in jail

for going into these institutes,

right?

Within the first two days of meeting

Vympel,

before I even met Doctor Zimin,

it was clear that they had no intention

of buying anything.

They wanted technology.

They wanted to know what they

could manufacture.

Totally different from what Ed Saad

had told us.

Completely different.

So, we were in Moscow for seven days.

On the second day, we figured it out

that they were never going to buy.

They wanted to manufacture something.

I quickly realized that the only

reason these

50-60-year-old Soviet radio engineers

came to meet with me, a young

non-engineer

American, was because we had

a breakfast buffet.

Theyd head straight for the table,

pack sandwiches into their briefcases,

and then talk to us.

I understood they were just taking

food home, and I was proud that

we could

at least feeding someone.

Yeah, it even got to the point where

I invited you to my house.

In Khimki Khovrino,

I was so proud: I had a three-room

apartment.

I asked them: how many rooms

do you have?

They tactfully just said they lived

in houses.

And the final day, the seventh day

where we got together with the CEO,

the general director of Vympel.

He brought all the different institutes

that we visited

to start a negotiation as to how

we could work together.

At that point, we had kind of decided

if we have any potential of returning

our investment,

we need to figure out something to do.

And we said, let's see how we

can maybe

manufacture locally with Vympel.

And there was some point,

I have no idea

what it was, but there was some point

of negotiation that Doctor Zimin

was absolutely

against giving to us, absolutely

against it.

And he literally, literally in this

room of 20 people

started banging on the table

saying, no way,

absolutely not. Never going

to happen.

It was very animated as he can be,

but literally he is banging

on the table.

It was essentially decided that

we should prepare for the fact

that we, Vimpel,

a manufacturing firm,

would be operating, and to

prepare production

we should familiarize ourselves with

the manufacturer in America.

A delegation was assembled,

which Augie then invited.

In those days going to the States

was unfathomable.

The Americans were hosting.

They covered all our expenses.

They sent us a fax with the invitation,

and a special request:

to include in the delegation

the bald gentleman

who was gesticulating wildly and

pounding on the table.

So I was included in the delegation

going to America at the last minute.

All I remembered was the guy

that was doing this.

And I said, make sure, as he told you,

that he is on that list of delegates.

I want him.

And, I don't know if I told you I guess

maybe not,

but the response back was, are you sure?

He is very difficult always.

He always is going against everybody.

He was against you with the protocol.

Are you sure you want him? And

I said, yes,

I am sure I want him because I want

someone with passion.

He was the only guy that showed

any passion in our

whole visit. Everybody else was

just like that.

Augie, your invitation to America,

that's where it all started, that turned

my life around.

And mine.

When the radio engineers first

came to visit,

the Soviet Union had just ceased

to exist.

They flew from the Soviet Union

to Chicago,

then returned to Russia within a week.

Not long after that,

the Russian radio engineer Dmitry Zimin

and I embarked on a true adventure:

co-founding a joint Russian-American

telecommunications company,

VimpelCom.

We took on the ambitious project

of establishing our first mobile network

in Moscow, connecting people in ways

previously unimaginable.

3 titanic revolutionary events converged.

The collapse of the Soviet Union,

The beginning of the introduction of

the free market

and the emergence of a completely

new cellular technology.

And so these three massive

events led to an incredible

intellectual revolution.

I've realized in my old age that

I was a startupper.

It was a startup built from nothing.

When everything was created

from scratch,

we had our first antenna on the roof

of the Foreign Ministry, this

tall building.

And miraculously, the connection

lasted

all the way to 8 March Street.

That's where the first call came from.

On July 12th '92, I was walking

down 8 March Street.

And I called Augie in America.

Dims motivation was a simple,

yet smart idea: to keep his people

employed and paid.

He brought his credibility

as a radio engineer to the table,

knowing how to build networks.

The resources, focus, marketing,

and planing were on me.

I dont think Dim fully grasped what

entrepreneurship meant,

but his adventurous

spirit made him eager to explore,

even the things he didnt fully

understand.

The next 10 years of my life, from

'91 to 2001,

were the most colorful for me,

the brightest period of my life.

We gather to celebrate the bonds

between

the Russian people and

the American people forged during

World w*r II.

And we gather to pledge that

the opportunity

we lost five decades ago to build

a better world will not be lost again.

Things were moving quickly:

all sorts of Western new

beginnings

were echoing throughout Moscow.

Our adrenaline matched the risk.

It was clear that Russia was

going to be

a world leader and a major part

of the global economy.

By 1992, we had gained 200

initial customers.

It was a time of crazy excitement.

You see, we worked for 30 years

under the pressure of the

Soviet regime,

you couldn't step out of line.

And then we broke out!

If we had built cellular

communications

according to the same rules

that our

military-industrial complex

was operating under back then,

there would still be nothing.

By 1996, 50,000 people in Moscow

were using our mobile phone

network.

Only four years lay between

the first mobile

call from Moscow to Chicago and

our companys

listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

The idea of IPO was Fabela's.

An Initial Public Offering, or IPO,

is the process by which a

privately held

company offers its shares to

the public for the first time.

In our case, our IPO was

the first time

American investors could

purchase shares

in a Russian business.

I said it was a momentous deal

back then too.

That's the idea of an

IPO came up.

At first I thought it was crazy,

but then I thought, why not?

But it was crazy interesting.

Convincing Dim?

Dim has always been extraordinarily

trusting on me.

He just trusted me. He just said yes.

He just said yes.

Yes, I trusted Augie absolutely.

We decided in November of 95,

and by November of 96,

we were public.

Even today, getting an IPO done

within one year is unheard of.

I wasnt that naive;

I knew how complicated

Russia was.

I saw the IPO as a high level

of protection

for the company. That was my

main reason

for pursuing it.

I knew that taking the

company public

with foreign investors would

bring us

support from the US government.

Theyd want to protect their investors,

especially since US-Russia relations

were very strong.

I remember, Augie remembers it

better than me,

the night before the IPO.

As we sat there,

we set a price. A bidding price.

You set it too high, no one will buy,

too low - you never know.

In the end we still set it too low,

there was such a rush to buy shares.

We could have set it a little higher.

We specifically wanted to make sure

that whatever price we set,

the investors would make money

on the first day.

We wanted them to be rewarded

for having confidence.

Because keep in mind, before

we went public,

to find a bank, I was rejected

by 13 banks,

who said, "No, we will not take

you public."

Hes too old, Im too young,

and its Russia. Are you kidding me?

So do you remember Dim

what happened

two weeks and two days into

the roadshow?

We were in the roadshow,

just three to five days away

from pricing, do you remember

what happened in Russia?

Yeltsin had a heart attack.

Two weeks into our road show.

If Yeltsin died, IPO is done.

It's over.

Everyone's still wondering,

Will it really

still always stay non-communist?

Because Yeltsin is the only one

that the West

believed was going to keep Russia

non-communist.

Keep in mind, just three years earlier,

there was a coup three years earlier.

So without Yeltsin, everyone believed,

it wasn't true.

But they believed, the West believed,

that it would fall back to communism.

So that was very dramatic for us

that all this work and one single

incident

could have broken everything.

Fortunately, he was fine. He had

his bypass surgery.

Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah,

how lucky we were!

This is World News Tonight.

On Wall Street today.

Yes, it is Wall Street with

the Russians.

After we listed our company on

the New York Stock Exchange,

its capitalization reached

$822 million...

In just five years, after starting

from

nothing in a new country.

Nobody would have thought

this was possible

back in 1990, except for perhaps

Ed Saad,

the cosmetics salesman,

and Yegor Gaidar, the first

reformer

of the post-Soviet economy.

Well, Dmitry Borisovich?

No matter how much

they laid into Gaidar, it turns

out that he was right.

Only four years have passed

since '92

and for the first time ever

a Russian company is listing

Russian securities

on the New York Stock Exchange.

When we needed money to

develop our business,

quite understandably, at one

time we lived off

bank loans. But loans in Russia

are very expensive,

up to 30% per annum.

In the first stage,

when business was booming,

it was still acceptable.

But as soon as even

a little bit goes towards

the interest,

you can't develop business on

loans like that.

Indeed, we should have fought

to have access,

as in the rest of the world, to the

cheapest capital

to grow the business. This cheapest

money is

found on the exchanges.

It was a first for the company,

a first in history.

There was actually a company in

the Russian Empire

that went public.

Under the blessing of Tsar Nicholas II,

securing a loan for the construction

of the Moscow-Vladivostok railroad.

But this company gave up something

there, bonds,

or something like that.

And there was no stock exchange

structure itself.

So as an exchange structure,

we were

the first in history.

Ever.

And what did we give them as a gift,

was it a samovar?

Nicholas the Czar had given

us Golden Samovar

to the exchange when they

listed the bonds.

And it sat in their boardroom,

because it's a very valuable piece.

So today, if you go to the New York

Stock Exchange

that sits in their boardroom.

So from that, we got the idea

that we would give

them a Gzhel samovar. And so that.

There's a picture of it.

We had the Russian flag.

We get the US flag and we have

the Beeline flag over the balcony.

The whole Wall Street closed.

We were doing all kinds of different

Russian culture events.

First time ever, we brought Russian

dancers onto

the stock exchange floor.

On the stock exchange floor,

we had Russian dancers.

Everyone, of course, stopped to look.

It was incredible.

I remember Augie's father, he was,

In my opinion, happier than Augie.

Do you remember your closing line

at every speech that we made

for the road show?

What was your closing line?

Do you remember, in English?

You said one phrase.

I can try to remember.

I memorized it by heart,

I've forgotten it now,

Augie, remind me.

I look forward...

I look forward to a very

bright future.

I look forward with...

To a very bright future!

Yes!

Every speech he ended with

I look forward to a very

bright future.

I look forward to a very

bright future.

That was his trademark

I also waved my arms around.

We must have had 120

presentations.

When, Dmitry Borisovich,

did you become

a rich man?

Don't you remember?

But he never thinks like that.

I'm a very bad conversation

partner.

Well, I don't remember.

No, he doesn't think like that.

There was never a moment.

I don't remember.

I'm starting to remember.

Now, just a second.

I'm remembering what

I'm remembering.

So this was the first time

I ever heard that I was rich.

Someone told me.

We used to know a guy named

Rozhetskin. Lenya.

Sometimes I went home not from

the "Airport" subway station,

but from the station "Dinamo",

just so I could walk a bit through

the park.

Sometimes I'd even walk all

the way home.

Once I ran into Rozhetskin near

that "Dynamo" station.

"Dmitry Borisovich, what are

you doing?" he says,

"Why?." "Do you know how much

you're worth?"

That's when for me this phrase...

I hadn't thought about it at all.

And when he said to me, "You're

wandering around alone,

but do you know how much you're worth?".

I couldn't begin to think of selling

Vimpelcom shares.

It had nothing to do with wealth.

How could I sell my shares?

It was unthinkable.

It would be like selling a child.

Unthinkable.

I was considered a rich man,

but only in name.

That's how I felt, I remember it well.

Was this time easy for you?

Did you encountered any difficulties,

resistance, or pressure?

God bless you, whatever happened!

In the early 1990s, after the fall

of the Soviet Union, Moscow

saw a surge

in violent organized crime.

It was a fight for "protection."

Gangs wanted us under their

umbrella and

would then demand shares

in return.

Wasn't it frightening?

There actually were periods

when it was scary.

I remember the moment I had

to get a security guard.

When?

I won't say!

Quite late in the evening,

in the summer,

at around midnight

I was walking home, by the Rechnoy

Vokzal metro station,

I concluded that, in many ways,

Dr. Zimin was more nave than I was.

It was a deserted street.

That neighborhood was pretty

empty at the time.

A crowd of guys came up to me,

I didn't pay any attention to them.

Suddenly, out of nowhere,

a couple of guys emerge from

this group,

They come up to me in absolute silence

and strike me in the face

without saying a word.

Bam! Silently.

So, I tried to move and got hit again.

I fell and they kicked me.

I ended up with blood all over my face.

And that's the state I came home in.

Then all sorts of theories started

pouring in,

It was obvious that they wanted

to intimidate me.

They wanted to understand they

could do to me,

they only hit me in the face,

But they could have gone further.

We routinely went through this with

criminals in our office, and once I had to

urgently escape to the United States.

One of our early partners was actually

k*lled, despite already having left

the company.

Though Id lived near Chicago,

I had never encountered anything

close to this kind of violence.

Yeltsin was already gone and

Putin was already there.

What did you think of him?

About Putin?

I can barely remember now.

I thought something like:

he seems like a nice guy, but

he's a Chekist

"Chekist" is an old term for

the Soviet secret police,

the predecessor of the KGB.

Dim knew this word well

from his early childhood.

They aren't decent people.

I had some vague suspicions.

The fact that he's a Chekist was

clearly a big question mark.

So, good morning!

Good morning!

Good morning, good morning!

Good morning, good morning!

In '35, my father was arrested.

I found out about it from my

'second mother',

my nanny, who remembered

him being arrested

and told me all about it.

She told me, half-whispering,

how they came for my father.

Just so my mother wouldnt hear,

mom prohibited discussing it,

God forbid.

Oh, if only your father were alive...

They had a whole crew that

was drinking,

snacking and telling jokes.

And someone reported it.

I read that denunciation.

Then it was then published.

What makes a scumbag?

Not from a journalist's point of view,

but from a scientist's point of view.

In the animal world, for a number

of reasons,

a heightened sense of aggression

is inherent in many, particularly

in males.

Aggression is an attempt to assume

a dominant position

in any relationship with others.

There are individuals in herds

who cannot show their aggression.

They're weak, they can't help it.

They have the only way to show

aggression is

to get closer to the leader,

the alpha male.

Then under his protection, as a herd

of monkeys would be,

they can allow themselves

to throw feces

at the stronger individuals.

That's how they form a layer of scum

around the leader over time.

Should we even have met?

Dim, a secretive Soviet radio engineer

and intellectual, born into a family

labelled as enemies of the state,

lost his father to Stalins prison camps.

And Im an American,

son of immigrants,

to whom my country has

given everything.

We seemed worlds apart.

Even up until Dim died,

we couldnt

fully explain what had brought

us together.

From the start, there was

instant respect,

endless loyalty, passion,

and a shared sense of adventure.

Simple human qualities

connected us forever...

Dim even became godfather

of one of my sons.

It just popped up on Facebook:

What did business leaders do

when they were 18?

Dmitry Zimin, founder of Vimpelcom.

Dynasty Foundation.

The Enlightener Awards.

I completely forgot it.

To read it out loud?

Spring of '51, our great leader

is still alive

Our friend and teacher.

We live in a communal apartment

in Bolshoy Afanasievsky Pereulok

with queues to wash up at the tap

in the kitchen and

in the restroom. The word "toilet"

was not used then,

at least not in our apartment.

There was no toilet paper either.

Speaking of which, you could

get into a lot of trouble

if you accidentally hung

a newspaper with the

portrait of the leader

in the restroom.

There was no bathtub or shower

in the apartment.

But I already knew that I want

to be a radio engineer.

And that's what I ended up being.

Oh, my God!

I started photography at a young age,

I think I might have been

in seventh grade?

I negotiated a deal with

my parents for a night.

We had two rooms

One room was given to me.

No one was allowed in or out.

The windows were curtained.

I dragged in buckets of water,

There were these special tubs.

When I built up a mountain

of photos

I'd move to the kitchen tap.

The neighbors were understanding.

My pice de resistance is

a homemade TV set.

The only one in our

communal apartment.

I earned some money by repairing

receivers and TV sets.

At times, it would blow me away

with thoughts and feelings

you couldn't share with my relatives.

Mom.

They were coming from

the Dokshitsi place.

Their family name is Dokshitsky.

First of all, then,

even before the revolution,

the Pale of Settlement line collapsed.

So, Jews were allowed to

live in big cities.

They rushed to St.-Petersburg

and Moscow.

Mom was among them.

She worked as a stenographer

and typist.

It was very much appreciated

back then.

I was born to the sound of a typewriter,

it typed us to life.

24 hours a day.

I'd never seen her documents.

The only thing I really didn't know

is that before my father

she was married, I had no idea.

Mom.

Her first husband was also repressed.

As my father.

He died.

She was dragged around

for interrogations.

No, talking about political topics

was categorically avoided.

She'd learnt from her experience.

Stalin is the name of Russia.

Where does someone get this

love for your master?

We witnessed something

absolutely insane

where people began not only to fear,

but also to love their tormentors.

A member of the herd is

afraid of his leader

because he can do anything to him.

But it is easier for him to survive this

if he begins not only to be afraid of,

but to love his tormentor.

Its easier for him to live,

its easier to reproduce,

If he loves his tormentor.

What are your impressions,

if you're honest

about the last journey of our lives?

Pleasant.

Yes.

So that gives me the right

to smoke a cigarette.

One cigarette, Mayechka, okay?

One single cigarette.

I'll go get a cigarette if I even

have one here.

I will then allow myself the pleasure

of spanking you.

There's nothing posing a threat

to my health anymore.

And youre robbing me of happiness.

In the name of what? Why?

What kind of a long life is this?

What matters is the quality of life.

To deny yourself pleasure for the

sake of better health?

Why? What's this health thing for then?

To live for a long time?

How much longer?

Why? For what?

Is physical immortality attainable?

I don't think so.

Prolonging life may simply be immoral.

You can't do that.

The renewal of life, the change of life is

absolutely necessary for its continuation.

It's just like constant, unchanging power.

Let's remember "Borodino."

- Hey tell, old man, had we a cause

When Moscow, razed by fire,

once was

Given up to Frenchmans blow?

Old-timers talk about some frays,

And they remember well

those days!

With cause all Russia fashions

lays about Borodino!

One thing no one knows

anything about is

how I married Maya Pavlovna.

What it was like. I had a friend,

Valera Sotin,

we used to go camping together

in the summer.

He said: "Let's go camping,

I have a friend

who is an archaeologist

and organizes

expeditions. You can go camping,

and they'll pay you for it.

Somewhere in Novgorod province.

Anyway, I'd been contracted as

a chauffeur there.

I liked it a lot.

A driver was considered a very

respected person.

The places where Maya

conducted her excavations are

absolutely incredible.

My father's relatives.

My dead father.

They lived in the village Losinka,

which I remembered as one

of the most

joyful places of my childhood.

This house in Losinka was full

of books.

Books were all that was left

of the very rich,

I didn't realize it at the time,

I later learned that the Zimin

family was very rich.

We absolutely need

to understand our history,

which has not yet occurred.

100-odd years ago we had

this catastrophe in our country.

This is essentially the rise to power

of the Chekists, the Communists,

who are still in power there,

if only in disguise.

This doomed the country

to a very modest set of achievements.

My grandfather was a big manufacturer.

These were really people of

a very different culture.

Alexander Guchkov, the head of

the State Duma (the Parliament),

was my grandmother's cousin.

Obviously this was kept secret

in the family.

I remember some time

towards the end of the WW2,

my Aunt Lena told me that in some

of her documents,

where you had to list your relatives,

she carefully corrected one

letter in her surname:

Guchkov to Tuchkov.

He was Head of the Provisional

Government,

Chairman of the Tsarist Duma,

it was unthinkable

to be related to someone like that.

Of course, the whole affair

was covered up.

And from this dynasty the only

thing I have left is

the Encyclopedia of Brockhaus

and Ephron.

A completely unnecessary book.

I think what depresses me the most,

what evokes a sense of grief is

maybe not even the history of that

particular family.

I have the impression that Russia

was shot down at takeoff,

that this wasn't just the fate

of my kind.

Thousands and thousands

of other families.

A massive tragedy took place

in the history

of the country, Russia was shot

down on takeoff.

The emigration of Zworykin,

an inventor of television,

cost Russia,

because television was invented

in the US, not in Russia,

it cost Russia, as I was sho? ked

to find out,

multiple times the value of

country's annual GDP.

The same thing with Sergey Brin,

a young guy,

he is a co-founder of Google,

for our viewers.

It is estimated it cost 2 - 3 time

Russia's annual budget.

Now were it not for these tragic events,

this would be one of the greatest

countries in the world,

which prides itself not on the number

of tanks produced,

but on the standard of living

in the country.

And it was all destroyed, shot.

Or emigrated.

What year did I graduate high school

and go to college?

I've forgotten.

I graduated in '54.

Well, you're young.

And you're three years older.

I've forgotten completely.

I finished first grade...

41 - 42, one moment...

In 1942 I finished the first grade.

So, in 1952, 10 years later

I graduated from high school.

In '52, I started university.

I have already said once

that my life really came to be as

it is by some

happy accident:

my mother taught me in her time,

when I was 15 or 16 years old,

when I had to fill out the first

questionnaires,

I never once wrote that

my father was repressed.

I wrote that my father died when

I was two years old.

It was true,

I just didn't write where he died,

and he died in the Gulag.

Otherwise, I wouldn't have seen

either the

aviation institute or the radio

department.

My mom followed up on that.

Only did I go through with it, stuck

my tongue out, filled out this form,

and made myself a copy.

After that, no matter how many forms

I filled out,

I'd always write the same thing.

It never showed up once.

Not to mention that my passport

stated that I was Russian, not Jewish.

This is an important feature

of my biography.

I'm not sure if I had registered

as Jewish,

I would have seen an elite radar

faculty.

A anti-Jewish pogromic mood

hung in the air.

The institute was at the Sokol

subway station,

the final stop, and I had to take a tram.

I walked sometimes, sometimes

I took a tram,

but I was starting to get scared

of riding the tram.

The pogrom feeling hung in the air.

I didn't have the nerve to deny

having a Jewish face,

I didn't have the nerve, especially if

I was with my mom,

who was clearly jewish.

This humiliation was really distressing.

The circle that I've gravitated to

all my life,

starting from my school years,

from the '59th' school

in Starokonyushenny Peruolok,

and then at the Institute, and so on.

I have little recollection of

any other conversations

relating to power other than

rejecting it.

Contempt, resentment.

Resentment and indignation.

People who are interested in science,

they're different across all industries.

They all somehow end up being

called dissidents.

Otherwise, science can't be done.

Why did so many dissidents

come from

physics, but far fewer came

from the humanities?

Is it from being used to systematic

thinking, to conspiracy, why is it?

I guess, at least for the ones I knew,

from here and there

among physicists. You see,

maybe it's because

in the exact sciences like physics,

maths well,

there's a kind of vulgarity in

what I'm about to say.

I mean, they require absolute

honesty.

Innovators, as a rule, are not

conventionally-minded people.

They are different.

They are dissenters.

These people are passionate,

and there are very few of them.

How they live their lives and

what they create is

determined not only by money.

We won't succeed

if we do not develop a

respect for dissent

to other people.

'53. I remember Stalin's death

very well.

Oh, my God!

I don't know whether it was

a tragedy, a farce, a mockery,

I didn't keep the paper for

when my father was rehabilitated,

my mother received his salary for,

I don't remember whether it was

for two or three months.

She was hysterical.

It happened at the same time:

we were given his rehabilitation

and paycheck.

The fact that he's a Chekist was

clearly a big question mark.

Now regarding whether Russia

will use military force

without UN sanctions?

We will always act strictly

within the framework of

international law.

Let's put it this way:

what's happening now makes

me sad.

What is happening in

the country now

makes me want to cry.

This feeling is like we've become

a different country.

Then it was time for hope,

and now it's just about survival.

Do you remember the meeting

of major

businessmen that Putin came to?

The one happened a month after

Khodorkovsky's arrest,

in October 2003.

When Putin came and said:

everything is fine, you can relax.

The famous congress of the Russian Union

of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs,

that greeted Putin with

a standing ovation.

In one newspaper article

the headline was: loud and

prolonged applause,

everyone stands up to avoid

going to jail.

What was happening there?

Augie can add something maybe.

We were mostly a Moscow-based

company.

The business was in Moscow.

I put in a lot of effort back then,

fighting for licenses for the regions.

It was clear that we needed

to expand

to other regions.

That would have cost a colossal

amount of money.

It became clear to me pretty quickly,

that in order to develop the company,

you would need to spend money.

And that I would lose controlling

interest.

If I have to dilute control

to grow the company.

I'll leave business altogether.

Why did you decide to leave

the company

right as it was exploding? It was

in 2001, as I recall.

It was completely informed decision.

A very important factor was that

the situation in politics had changed.

There were a lot of factors,

and they came

together at the same time:

the rise to power of the Putins crew

from St. Petersburg,

and the emergence of certain officials

who found themselves in a

conflict of interest.

They regulated business

on the one hand,

and on the other hand, they were

businessmen themselves.

There's a competitor who

gets everything.

They won't give you anything.

Yeah, it was a dead end.

I realized that we were facing

a government intervention

aimed at hurting our business.

We could see it happening.

Reiman was a minister, and

at the same time

he had his own cellular company,

based in St. Petersburg.

He aggressively helped develop

this company

where he was a shareholder,

it wasn't even very secret.

Moreover, as soon as he

became a minister,

this company got a free license

for the whole of Russia.

Which, of course, is completely

unthinkable.

In this respect, it was obvious that

we were losing competitiveness

precisely

because of the shameless use

of administrative resources

for his company.

It was pure thuggery.

He was a minister and business

owner

and administrative power was

used for

the benefit of his company.

It was obvious, and I could do

nothing about it.

We were being targeted and attacked.

But dealing with these kinds

of problems was

very different to the organized

crime of the 90s.

The type of craziness and its intensity

had changed.

Everything was clear to me.

And so almost simultaneously with

the sale of the shareholdings,

and essentially the transfer of control

was my resignation.

I mean, it was all leading up to it.

Anyway, I decided I'd rather do it myself

than have someone else do it to me.

All this was happening step by step,

we were gradually coming to

the point where

we are no longer, in fact, a federation,

but a unitary state. In fact,

the Constitution

is completely dysfunctional.

In the same hands is both

political power

and control over all branches

of government:

judicial, executive and legislative.

And the main financial proceeds

coming

from oil are in those same hands.

I remember when Boris Nemtsov,

a man I respect,

he said that he would now sit

in defiance

when the national anthem was played,

and all of that.

It was all very painful for me as well.

That's how he was thinking.

He was instinctually smart enough

to say, "It's time."

Its time.

And that was the bigger decision

not being done with Vimpelcom.

It's saying, "I will finish all

my commercial activities.

I will do only philanthropy 100%.

I will no longer do anything

business related"

which is extraordinary.

A whole new career.

A whole new life.

Maybe.

Maybe.

My friends!

The next major stage of my life

was retirement.

From 2001 to 2016, it is philanthropy,

it's the Dynasty Foundation.

I was never a billionaire.

I was a millionaire, even

a multimillionaire,

but I wasn't a billionaire.

Long story short, I made a trust

where I gave 90% of all my money.

This was under a very strict

written condition

that the beneficiary of this money

cannot be me,

nor my heirs, nor any of my relatives.

Only for charity.

My son and wife supported

this decision.

When I gave all my money

to this fund,

it was no longer mine.

If they were mine, it would be eating

me up from the inside.

What the hell?

Once you've made up your mind

and given it away.

I get it.

It burns the bridge.

I began to set up Dims foundation,

making sure it was transparent

and would last forever.

Dim decided to give away 90%

of his wealth.

He even took money away from his son,

but it didnt faze Boris at all.

He fully supported the idea.

Back then, no one was giving all their

money away, except for Warren Buffet,

who did it later that year.

The foundation operates on the basis

of an instruction that was written from

the very beginning,

where it was written that the

foundation is dedicated to supporting

not even science but scientists.

It is dedicated to supporting

smart people.

In the field of science it is easier

to identify

a talented, intelligent person

than in other fields.

Spending money.

What did I spend the money on?

It was the Dynasty Foundation.

It was the Enlightener Award,

which still exists today.

It's been really great.

I feel like an honorable man.

In mythology, probably not just our

Russian mythology,

the process of making money

was considered some kind of sin.

Vimpelcom was, of course,

earning money,

it was listed on the stock exchange.

But it was associated with some

kind of joyful,

light emotions.

Nothing like Mephistopheles'

"People die for metal.

Satan rules the ball there."

It was nothing like that. It wasn't

destructive

but it was a new and very interesting,

almost holy act.

In Russia, I saw many successful

businessmen

and wealthy people.

I saw that many of them made

money

not to become richer,

but cooler than everyone else.

I saw how money became

a tool to get closer to power.

But neither power, nor

the constant

alfamale competition ever

inspired Dim.

He needed to create something unique,

something that would bring

real change.

Many of the people Id met

had leadership

qualities and talents just like Dim,

but Dim had something else:

a weakness,

his big heart.

You see I've always viewed

my work in a rather selfish way.

I've been doing what I enjoy.

Fate has made doing good

deeds bring

me the most pleasure.

Well, thank God for that.

Philanthropy.

I can only be grateful to fate that

I was allowed to do this work,

and enjoy it.

I'm a hedonist.

And by the way, the only Russian

to ever receive the Carnegie

Medal of Honor.

What?

The only Russian to ever get

a Carnegie Medal.

Yeah yeah yeah

For philanthropy. I forgot Yes. Yes, Yes

For philanthropy.

After Dim sold his shares,

I also gradually sold mine.

I returned home and decided

to become a police officer.

As a child, Id never dreamt

of being a cop.

A dear friend of mine from Chicago

was on the board of a non-profit

police helicopter unit.

He asked me to build a business

model for them,

so that they wouldnt constantly

have to

beg for funds for fuel.

It started as a business task,

but one day the chief asked me

if I wanted to be a police officer.

I said Yes.

But I spent 9 months in

the police academy

as a cadet,

even though I was 44 and everyone

else was 20.

Now, I probably see myself as

a cop first

and a businessman second.

This is actually my Chiefs patch,

which I wear with my uniform.

My star number is number seven.

We have 11,000 officers in the

Chicago Sheriff's Office

so I am number seven.

In police tradition,

when you train with each other,

you exchange patches.

We have been through some

incredible trainings

together in business.

So I want to share this patch

with you.

My visits to Moscow became more

and more rare.

Like most foreigners, I didnt notice

significant changes in Russian until 2014.

I only saw how business was growing.

But everything changed when

Russia annexed Crimea.

I realized then that Dims vision

of his countrys future completely

contradicted Russias new trajectory.

I, we, are watching with great interest

Everything that's happening in Ukraine.

We pray: God willing that everything

works out for you!

It's extremely important, the fork

in the road is clear.

A fork in the road in politics,

God willing that things work out for you.

It's not just your affairs

this concerns us too.

I'd been uneasy about our

government even before,

but Crimea was a real blow for me.

Crimea was some kind

of personal insult.

How could it happen?

Guarantees were given to Ukraine.

Guaranteeing its integrity.

And they were completely violated.

The Dynasty Foundation was labelled

as a foreign agent.

It was, quite frankly, a shock to me.

After the dozens of books

that have been published,

after the amount of money that has

been invested in science

and in support of many projects.

Do you remember how you felt

when you first heard about it?

I felt gravely insulted.

I see.

Insulted and offended.

I said: Lord, how could this be?

I'm from here,

Im from Arbat.

What's happening?

It was despicable.

I guess.

By law I was supposed to

put everywhere,

what it's called,

a stamp, a sign

to signify a foreign agent.

If a foundation raises money for

some godly activity

and is then told that it

has been labeled

a foreign agent.

It's kind of understandable.

But when a foundation,

which does not collect

but donates money,

has to say that it is a foreign agent,

it's absolute nonsense and

a mockery.

It didn't make sense to me.

Oh, this is all very sad.

It's all very sad.

The root of the problem,

as I understand it,

was that my son Boris was

funding the opposition.

Did you really finance sending

Navalny abroad?

Yes. Maybe Boris financed it,

but the money was mine.

Will he (Navalny) come back

and does he need

to come back?

I think he'll be back. He's

a brave man.

Though I'm not sure it's necessary

to do so.

What does he need to do now,

from your perspective?

He needs to do

all the things he's been doing so far:

speaking, writing, dissenting.

In 2021, at 88 years old,

Dim set off abroad to visit

his son Boris,

who had fled Russia to evade

political persecution.

Shortly after Dim's departure,

his granddaughter received

a summons

intended for him,

calling him in for questioning.

Its a dark reflection of Russias

present climate:

Dim would likely have not been able

to return without getting arrested.

Dims life journey intertwined

with a complete historical cycle

in 20th-century Russia.

After nearly 100 years from

the first time

the State tore Dims family apart,

it did so again.

Dmitri Borisovich, just a second.

Okay. Hold this.

We'll be leaving soon.

Yes, lets do it.

Let's do it before we leave.

Thank you.

I love Moscow so much.

I'm a Moscovite,

I often start to miss Moscow

even now.

But at the same time, when you

hear the news,

the longing for Moscow starts to fight

with your own common sense.

It's one of the most depressing feelings

I've had lately.

I'm an Arbat native.

My whole life is there.

I see the most beautiful places

right here.

But at the same time, there's

not a place

where I have that amazing

incredible nostalgic feeling

like when I walk down

the streets of Arbat.

Sivtsev Vrazhok,

Starokonyushennaya, Vlasyevsky.

Talking about it makes

it sound banal.

You can't really describe it,

You can't experience these feelings

no matter what beautiful

place you visit,

Rome, London.

They're beautiful!

But this feeling of a life lived,

it's only there.

Yes, it's settling - I have left

My native fields for good.

No more will rustling poplars shed

On me their winged leaves.

The old house sinks lower

without me.

My old dog died years ago

God has condemned me to die

An exile on the streets of Moscow.

I am really patriotic in the sense

that I am not as ashamed of any

country in the world

as I am of my own country.

I might be horrified but others, but

I am ashamed only for my country,

not for any other.

Patriotism has different facets.

Love for the tribe, love for the leader,

who might be cruel, but who

is your leader.

This love very quickly turns

to xenophobia,

to hatred for your neighbors.

That's where the danger is.

So, this complex was called patriotism

in the Stone Age,

and then it became love of the state,

love for the leader.

There is another kind of patriotism.

It's almost like loving your parents,

it's loving your birthplace,

a tender love for your immediate

surroundings.

What interesting things can

you take from

and bring to your country?

So the first love is a proud love.

Pride for your tribe.

The second type comes from

learning from the world.

Those are the two kinds of patriotism.

I lost faith a long time ago.

I understand that we live in

an authoritarian state

with all the consequences

that entails.

And a political system that

no election will change.

Should investors be wary

of Russian troops entering Ukraine?

Look, they talked about

the possible entry

of Russian troops into Ukraine

at the beginning of the year,

we conducted the Zapad

2021 exercises,

but as you can see, it didn't happen.

No man,

no one, Lord knows, should be

in power for long.

He must not have absolute power.

It was a great discovery: separation

of powers and

succession of powers.

Wars only take place when someone

rules indefinitely.

I have made a decision to conduct

a special military operation.

At the same time, our plans

do not include

the occupation of Ukrainian territories.

What does it take for a w*r

to start between

France, England and Germany?

The simplest thing:

a leader for life. That's it, it's w*r!

There are approximately 200 nations

in the world.

Some of them have nuclear weapons

in increasing numbers.

Some of them are in a state

of savage enmity

with their immediate neighbors.

In some of them there are

authoritarian regimes,

where the decision of using those

weapons or destroying

a hated neighbor is practically down

to one person.

People ask how stable a world

like that can be

for a hundred years?

Can a world like that be stable?

It seem very unstable.

Regarding nuclear escalation:

we never started this rhetoric.

We have our tactical nuclear weapons

That are three or four times

more powerful

than the bombs used by

the Americans

in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Three or four times more powerful.

We have much more of them

than those in Europe, even

if the Americans

bring theirs from the United States.

We still have many times more.

Aggression against Russia by

any non-nuclear state,

but with the participation or

support of a nuclear state,

is proposed to be considered

as their joint attack on

Russian Federation.

Including if the enemy, using

conventional weapons,

creates a critical threat to

our sovereignty.

Only a society

which is capable of, in its soul,

substituting its love for the nation

to love for people.

Only such a society can be

guaranteed longevity.

A society that is permeated

with hatred,

cannot be stable or sustainable.

That's the colossal challenge

before us.

Only a humane society can expect

to exist for a long, long time.

I realized that this was going to

be my last journey.

I'm 88 years old after all.

Almost certainly. Overall, though,

I'm feeling pretty good.

Father, I'm happy we're all here.

I honestly didn't even think

it was possible.

Thank you Augie for coming here.

About ten years ago

you asked me to write a book,

about Vimpelcom and my perspective,

my experience.

I'm much closer to writing it. I have not

written it yet,

I have not publishing yet, I actually

have written

about one chapter from finishing it.

Before my flight home,

Dim gave me

his updated autobiography,

and I told him about my nearly

finished book

on our shared history.

In a few months, when Russia

bombs Kyiv,

destroying entire towns

and families,

Ill have to rewrite the ending.

The Russian part of the company

Dim and I founded 30 years ago

can likely never again be part

of the global business sphere,

while the Ukrainian and

international

branches continued thriving

and operating.

I returned to its board to revive

the pioneering spirit that defined

us in 1991.

During the third week of the w*r,

I made my first trip to Ukraine

on a private police mission.

We committed to helping Ukraine

and have been volunteering

there ever since.

Sign it right here in Russian

and then I will translate in English.

When you're ready.

One moment.

When you're ready.

Boris, my hand is so shaky,

I haven't been

able to write for the past year.

Okay, I'll sign it.

Ok, you.

Let me put it this way, you correct me,

Dear Augie,

Dear Augie, I ask you to consider

yourself

a co-author

a co-author of this book

as you have co-authored my fate.

Well said.

Co-author must be written together.

How you became the co-author

of my fate.

I can't.

Damn it!

It's about to get so ugly, I can't do this.

Later. I'll sign it later.

Terrific, thank you!

Let's read something.

Farewell, my friend. Farewell

My dear, you're in my heart forever

It was predestined we should part

And meet again someday

Farewell for, my friend - no shaking hands,

no tears.

No furrowed brows.

Theres nothing new about dying

In this life. Nor's living any newer.

Just before the end,

Dim gathered a team of colleagues,

scientists, and intellectuals in Cyprus.

They had been working with

Dims foundation

for many years.

There, they envisioned new

philanthropic goals.

To the joy of learning, to enlightenment,

which is a good thing not only for the

enlightened, but also for those

who enlighten.

Congratulations!

Right before the Christmas of 2021,

I went to accompany Dim and Boris

on their final trip to Switzerland,

where euthanasia is legal.

Dim had decided to undergo

this procedure before 2022.

That's Health and Well-Being,

isn't it?

He sought to depart this world

peacefully and,

notably, at the right moment...

His sense of timing was extraordinary.

We were very different people

in many ways:

Dim was a staunch atheist,

and Ia Christian with faith in God.

Initially, I found his death almost

impossible

to come to terms with.

Despite my attempts to dissuade him,

he remained resolute and in a hurry.

We both shared a belief in

the significance

of free will and the absolute mastery

of an individual over their

own existence.

I think this helped me accept it.

This is our goodbye photo.

This final journey marks the end

of my personal story with Dim

and post-Soviet Russia.

The history we shared has

come full circle.

Everything that was achieved

during the brief

friendship between the US

and Russia

is now being undone...

Except

for our connection.

If I were younger, if I were young...

I think that one of the most

important tasks

that any literate people,

the intelligentsia out there,

have is to educate.

Generally speaking, being an old

man is not great

my legs aren't walking well already.

There's always something.

But there is a certain positive

side of things,

because you see your horizon

and you want to shout: guys,

you have to live,

You think about it!