It was the end of the cold war, the collapse of the berlin wall while i was there, and i did a degree in soviet studies and by the time i had that degree in hand in 1991 the soviet union was history. so i found myself moving along with the times and seeing a real breakthrough also in us—soviet and also us—russian relations at the time so i found myself right in the thick of action that i don't think i would have been had i been in the uk but also honestly, it was the class and accent issue. when you get to the united states nobody can distinguish between a bbc accent like yours stephen and...