12 thoughts on “An unexpected honour.”

1. There goes your visit to the Hermitage!

2. I am working on getting a refund on my ticket to Crimea.

3. lol Congratulations! I thought you would’ve been on their hit list a long time ago (speaking metaphorically) … And did they send you a telegram – do we still have those – I’m sure they do ;-)

   … a ticket to Crimea lol … but who wouldn’t love to visit the Hermitage, and all those other special sites … the Amber Room …

   https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20210506-russias-eighth-wonder-of-the-world

   so much glory hidden away behind this new wartime iron curtain.

   :-)

4. “No vodka for you!”

5. Thanks Barbara,

   I ran into some Russians back in the day but they had no reason to see me as a threat. Nor should they now. It is a measure of Putin’s insecurity that I would be on any anti-Russian list, and also tells me that the Russian foreign policy institutional memory is not that good.

6. Huzzah. https://d25xwu00ja1liw.cloudfront.net/uploads/2020/07/HuzzahCreative.mp4

7. Ha Ha, good one Carlitos. I deleted the redundant comment.

8. For some odd reason, the article won’t open for me, try as I may. I put it down to my security software. But I get the sense that you’ve been named persona non grata by Russia. That’s a badge of honour, Pablo!

9. Thanks Di.

   You are right about the “honour.” I am on a list of 36 NZ’ers who are banned. It is an odd list, mostly military and political figures (including the Mayors of Napier and Wellington), some academics, and me. Here is the link in case it works on a comment rather than the post itself: https://mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/1959715/

10. Felicidades! Barbara Matthews.B

11. Thank you for the new link, Pablo – still no joy for me being able to open it.

    You’re on a list that some of the very best people are on, so congratulations are definitely in order. :)

12. Di,

    Sorry that the link will not open. TBH the list seems a bit random other than the military and other government officials.