I don't know what triggered this particular memory, but it still makes me laugh.

In the early 70's, I was living in Moscow, in the Breshnev era, working for a US company, based out of Vienna. One dark evening, (Moscow in those days had to have installed the least number of street lamps of any city in Europe) I was stopped by a one of the traffic militia (police). As foreigners resident in Moscow, we had these fluorescent white licence plates, which meant they could see us coming a mile away. We always had some cartons of cigarettes in the car trunk, because most of the time, if they were not just collecting money, they would politely ask us if we had any "Amerikanski cigarettes" This elderly policeman, had been a young soldier with the Red Army when they took Berlin, and was proud of his limited English phrases, he had learnt, as a liason with the Americans... Before I left, he pulled out his tattered book of rules and regs, and said to me "You are safe here !" He then proceeded to Page XX, Para XX Subsection XX (he could only count in Russian)  He translated to me, very slowly "It say, do not shoot foreigner..Causes many administrative problems" Gave me a big smile and a hug, and happily sent me on my way...

I still laugh when I think of that wonderfully perverse logic.. "It is O.K. to shoot people, but only if it doesn't result in a lot of paperwork"  It was not a particularly memorable 2 years, and the other thing that was very Orwellian, was the evening news. There were always two news presenters, male and female.. Almost every item began with the word "

" pronounced colloquially "Sehvodnia" meaning Today.. Nothing ever happened yesterday, and it seemed that nothing was going to happen tomorrow.. Very bizzare...

Regards

Richard