Out of nowhere, and like a shooting star from the sky, on our very last morning in Moscow … an American (of all things!!) in Russia, David called me on my mobile, he cannot read Tia, our PR person’s, mobile number on the fax we sent late yesterday and was running late to their 6.15 dawn meeting. He said that he is the highest-ranking foreigner in the Russian federal government—the PR and communications officer of the Kremlin assigned to work with foreign press and film teams. He had heard about New7Wonders from the Russian News & Information Agency RIAN and said, (oh miracle!) that he can help. This is really crazy and the last thing I had expected in Russia, an American to be the most helpful person! He could not understand why nobody had given us his number, but we have come up with the real reason: “Lost in bureaucracy!”
We met him just hours before we had to leave for the airport and everything worked itself out. Reality is often stranger than fiction, here is proof once again.
An exceptionally friendly and efficient fellow, David from Oregon speaks, of course, fluent Russian and has even taken on sort of a Russian look, including cigarette in hand. The fact the Kremlin trusts such an unconventional person, and a Cold-War-Era enemy to boot, inspires a lot of hope that, once the old bureaucracy will have disappeared, Russia will be on a dynamic move altogether, not just filled with today’s booming capitalism with all of its garish, sad downsides.
Funnily enough, as I mentioned briefly before, the most generous support came from the Bulgarian Embassy, especially from Konstantin, the communications and Internet officer, who arranged all transportation—in old Ladas, so we were perfectly undercover. No need for bulletproof cars, nobody could guess that we were actually representatives of a huge, global, groundbreaking campaign! He also served as our translator everywhere, and got us into places we never could have accessed on our own. He even lent us his very chic, slim mobile phone, which very much impressed me. He has become a dear friend to us! This shows, in a practical way, that N7W is truly a multinational project. Even countries which do not have an official candidate contribute with their energy, intelligence and talents to help make N7W a success. Thanks to all of them!
