Speaker 1: In a Moscow TV studio. A thirty something guy with thick,
Speaker 1: wavy hair leans forward in his chair. His name is
Speaker 1: Artemy Troitzky, the barricade building journalist from the last episode.
Speaker 1: He's about to invite you to something revolutionary from my
Speaker 1: TV offices. I've made the last announcement alive, saying the
Speaker 1: Gagart Party is starting very soon. You are welcome to
Speaker 1: the first ever Rave in Moscow, the first ever Rave
Speaker 1: in Moscow, a rager to end all ragers and named
Speaker 1: after your Gagarin, the first human to journey into space.
Speaker 1: And it will be techno music played all night, Russian,
Speaker 1: Latvian and German and French DJs, and the location also
Speaker 1: cosmonaut themed. The Space Pavilion a museum dedicated to the
Speaker 1: glories of the space program. It was like Snayland. You
Speaker 1: walk in, There's a curved ceiling made of glass. It's dark,
Speaker 1: the music so loud you feel it in your chest.
Speaker 1: All around you are models and relics from the Soviets
Speaker 1: glorious space program, satellites, the capsule that sent Gagaren into space,
Speaker 1: gagaren space suit from his flight. And the place is
Speaker 1: packed bodies, sweating, bodies, dancing, throwing their heads up to
Speaker 1: the sky, young people free at last to party. I
Speaker 1: think that the whole of cool Moscow was there, artists, actors, models,
Speaker 1: the new generation creating something beautiful from the ashes of
Speaker 1: the old world. We felt like a brand new country
Speaker 1: which is aiming at the bright future, which will be
Speaker 1: totally different from what we've had before. But what would
Speaker 1: that mean for the cosmonauts, the Soviet citizens who once
Speaker 1: represented the future? What would happen to them in the
Speaker 1: new Russia. I'm Lance bass And from Kaleidoscope Exile and
Speaker 1: iHeart Podcasts. This is the last Soviet mingling with the
Speaker 1: rush hour traffic, army armored personnel carriers on the streets
Speaker 1: of Moscow. The August nineteen ninety one, a faction of
Speaker 1: hardline communists just tried to take control of the Soviet
Speaker 1: government tanks in Red Square. The official tanks rattled through
Speaker 1: the streets of Moscow and hundreds of thousands of people
Speaker 1: stood up to them. Three civilians had died last night
Speaker 1: when light tanks tried to slam through a barricade. In
Speaker 1: just three days, the coup felled, the hardliners were pushed out,
Speaker 1: and the people won. Tonight n Caligorbatrophia is again president
Speaker 1: of the Soviet Union, the man who tried to bring
Speaker 1: him down or either under arrest or being hunted. But
Speaker 1: as the dust settled and all of the old values
Speaker 1: and structures of the Soviet world fell away, a brand
Speaker 1: new system was beginning to take shape. As if to
Speaker 1: harold this new dawn, something very unusual was about to happen.
Speaker 1: On the Soviet space station, where our man Sarage is
Speaker 1: still hard at work. The cosmonauts on Mirror were about
Speaker 1: to become the face of one of the most famous
Speaker 1: brands in the world, Coca Cola. If you taste it,
Speaker 1: there's the burn and bite at the back of your
Speaker 1: throat for a moment that then gives you the In
Speaker 1: the summer of nineteen ninety, Craig Kohan was twenty seven
Speaker 1: years old, newly single, and ready to take Moscow by storm,
Speaker 1: one can of Coca Cola at a time. I was
Speaker 1: sent to figure out how to build the cocola system
Speaker 1: in the Sovietinia. That was the brief. Craig was the
Speaker 1: new face of capitalism, the alternative to the old Soviet
Speaker 1: way of doing things. Remember, in the USSR, private enterprise
Speaker 1: had been banned completely for decades. So Craig was a
Speaker 1: representative of a totally new mindset, a totally new way
Speaker 1: of life. And you could say Craig was born to
Speaker 1: do this job. He grew up in Toronto and what
Speaker 1: he called a McDonald's family, all the panti, sat sauces,
Speaker 1: cheez pickles, McDonald's big Man. When he was a kid,
Speaker 1: his dad, George Cohan, brought the first ever McDonald's to Canada.
Speaker 1: Canadians went crazy for it. Break today at McDonald's where
Speaker 1: your dollar gets a break every day. George Cohan even
Speaker 1: had a bus called the Big Mac Bus, used to
Speaker 1: raise money for charity. And then in nineteen seventy six,
Speaker 1: during the Montreal Olympics, the Canadian government came to Craig's
Speaker 1: dad with a strange favor. Would he please let the
Speaker 1: Soviet delegation use his bus to get around the city
Speaker 1: And so we met all the Soviets in nineteen seventy six.
Speaker 1: They rode the big backbus and in the evening they
Speaker 1: went out to dinner and what did they eat, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you guessed it, Big Max. And that's when Craig's dad
Speaker 1: had an idea. Watching these big Russian guys tucking into
Speaker 1: burghers and fries. He thought, I know what I'm gonna
Speaker 1: make my life's mission to bring McDonald's to the Soviet Union.
Speaker 1: It became from my father a fourteen year, amazing epic
Speaker 1: odyssey to get the first McDonald's built in Pushkin Square.
Speaker 1: Pushkin Square is a square in central Moscow, a stone's
Speaker 1: throw from the Kremlin. And so that was fourteen years
Speaker 1: of conversations at home, conversations in the car, conversations at
Speaker 1: dinner about the Soviets. Year in and year out, they
Speaker 1: would host a rotating cast of Soviets at the Kohen Residence,
Speaker 1: anyone and everyone who could get a word back to
Speaker 1: the Kremlin about the wonders of McDonald's, whether they're ambassadors
Speaker 1: or ballet dancers, or artists or politicians. And then in
Speaker 1: January nineteen ninety, well, it's been fourteen years in the making,
Speaker 1: and today finally McDonald's threw open the doors to its
Speaker 1: first restaurant in Moscow. Thirty thousand people stood in line
Speaker 1: that day. They started lining up this morning at four o'clock.
Speaker 1: This woman doesn't know what she just date, but she
Speaker 1: says it was unusual and delicious. Clearly George Kohen had
Speaker 1: been on to something ahead of McDonald's. Canada waxed the
Speaker 1: lyric in this day and age, it's nice when the
Speaker 1: people can come out and get meat, reputations and milk
Speaker 1: of the highest quality. Craig watched in amazement at what
Speaker 1: his dad had just done. Happiness today in Moscow lay
Speaker 1: in the communal pursuit of a big mac, but he
Speaker 1: wanted to do something even bigger. For Craig, it was
Speaker 1: about more than just business. He was an idealist, and
Speaker 1: he had this vision that capitalism could actually bring Russians
Speaker 1: together with the rest of the world, that East and
Speaker 1: West could unite under the banner of a big brand.
Speaker 1: In December nineteen ninety, he flew to Moscow to attend
Speaker 1: the opening of his dad's McDonald's, and while he was
Speaker 1: there he bumped into the CEO of Coca Cola. He
Speaker 1: was drunk one night at the Kremlin after the opening
Speaker 1: of McDonald's. The CEO of Coca Cola looked at Craig
Speaker 1: and had an idea, and he said, Craig, I'm thinking
Speaker 1: of three things. You the Soviet Union and you and
Speaker 1: the Soviet Union. Big companies like Coca Cola saw an
Speaker 1: incredible opportunity in the Soviet Union. It was an open market.
Speaker 1: Western products basically didn't exist, so the potential for profit
Speaker 1: was mouthwatering. And now the CEO has the perfect man
Speaker 1: for the job, Craig Cohan, the son of the guy
Speaker 1: who got McDonald's into Moscow. But this was a very
Speaker 1: different challenge. Craig's dad had opened a single McDonald's. The
Speaker 1: CEO of Coke wanted cans in every corner shop in Russia,
Speaker 1: total domination. Craig accepted the challenge stage one reconnaissance. For
Speaker 1: the first six months June of nineteen ninety December of
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety, I spent every day going to every single
Speaker 1: metro stop in the city understanding how people drink beverages.
Speaker 1: You know, they used to have these amazing vending machines,
Speaker 1: or there was a single glass. Incidentally, just when you
Speaker 1: expect hard frost, Moscow has a thirsty heat wave. So
Speaker 1: buy yourself a cups. I'd think when you wash the
Speaker 1: glass and you would get a cool beverage a cavass
Speaker 1: out of that. Cavas not my favorite drink, but if
Speaker 1: sour bread and liquid form floats your boat, you might
Speaker 1: like it. And it's probably the second most popular drink
Speaker 1: in Russia after vodka, which was definitely more my thing,
Speaker 1: especially the infused ones. The pineapple very good. You would
Speaker 1: wash the glass and put it back in the next
Speaker 1: person and use the same glass, wash it and put
Speaker 1: it back and put five copecks in. So that's how
Speaker 1: people were experiencing beverages, very different to American vending machines,
Speaker 1: and so Craig had a ton of questions he needed
Speaker 1: to ask people lining up for their glass of cavas,
Speaker 1: although he was careful not to tell them he worked
Speaker 1: for Coca. No one really knew that I was working there.
Speaker 1: I was this interested guy doing a study on beverages
Speaker 1: in the Soviet Union. It was like he was an
Speaker 1: undercover agent. People just opened their arms to me for
Speaker 1: all the information, and that's how I got data. And
Speaker 1: then I worked at a chokovskis a vote for two
Speaker 1: and a half weeks. It was a champagne factory, and
Speaker 1: so I saw exactly how they mixed the product. I
Speaker 1: saw how they mixed the concentrate. I saw the rats
Speaker 1: in the sugar. I saw the whole system, the whole
Speaker 1: Soviet system. After a few months Craig felt like the
Speaker 1: reconnaissance stage of his mission was complete. But for Craig
Speaker 1: and Coca Cola to actually launch themselves in the Soviet Union,
Speaker 1: they needed a way to get into the hearts, minds,
Speaker 1: and eventually the mouths of Soviets. So they were going
Speaker 1: to have to get creative. Cocola never been on the
Speaker 1: North Pole, and so we got colas a North Pole.
Speaker 1: The company sponsored a famous Russian Arctic explorer. He put
Speaker 1: a Cocacola in his bag, and he took his husky,
Speaker 1: bringing huskies, and he went up to the North Pole
Speaker 1: and took a pictures the North Pole crank, and then
Speaker 1: it was time to head to the Kremlin. I made
Speaker 1: sure that when Bush met Gorbachov there was a Coca
Speaker 1: Cola on that table. So Craig starts thinking, what's the
Speaker 1: next frontier. If you could go to the North Pole
Speaker 1: and you can get it on the table at the Kremlin,
Speaker 1: you could certainly get it in space infiltrating the Soviet
Speaker 1: space station. This was going to be the most spectacular
Speaker 1: triumph for Coca Cola and good old fashioned American capitalism.
Speaker 1: And so Coca Cola's engineers started working away in a
Speaker 1: lab in Atlanta trying to create a coke can that
Speaker 1: could survive on mirror, and after months of work, it
Speaker 1: was ready, a little red can that looks a lot
Speaker 1: like the ones we have here on Earth, except it
Speaker 1: was fitted with a strange white nozzle and a metal
Speaker 1: button on top. This was meant to stop it from
Speaker 1: exploding in zero grabbing. On August twentieth, nineteen ninety one,
Speaker 1: the Soviet Space Agency launched their M nine cargo spacecraft
Speaker 1: from Bikanore in kazakh Stop. On board is a crate
Speaker 1: of spaceproof Coca Cola cans, making their groundbreaking journey to
Speaker 1: the space station. The next day, Sarage presses a button
Speaker 1: on top of the can and it squirts the coke
Speaker 1: into his mouth. Burn and bite at the back of
Speaker 1: your throat. Even in space. It's a huge moment. Although
Speaker 1: Serge wasn't really sure about the taste. His Ham radio
Speaker 1: friend Maggie asked him, do you like Coca cola? What's
Speaker 1: it taste like in space? And Sitgay said, It's all
Speaker 1: right in space, he said, but insduce his better. No matter,
Speaker 1: Coca Cola and capitalism had won the day. It was
Speaker 1: like integration Finally, of these two opposing Cold War cultures
Speaker 1: that have come together, and Coca Cola being a little
Speaker 1: moment that brought people together. For idealists like Craig, it
Speaker 1: seemed like the beginning of a new future for Russia,
Speaker 1: Sergey and the space program. But there was a problem
Speaker 1: lurking just around the corner. Not everyone in the New
Speaker 1: Russia had such noble intentions as Craig. I think there's
Speaker 1: two ways to approach this country, that's Gregg in an
Speaker 1: NBC interview from the time. One is to be a
Speaker 1: pioneer and the others to be a pirate and coming
Speaker 1: here and try to courage the land. And it turns
Speaker 1: out in the New Russia the line between pioneer and
Speaker 1: pirate was extremely thin. Why did you put a rock
Speaker 1: and propelled hand grenade through my office this morning? And
Speaker 1: he said, I've been wanting to meet you, and I
Speaker 1: really didn't know how else to get your attention. That's
Speaker 1: after the break. Just a few months after Surge drank
Speaker 1: the can of coke on the space station, the Soviet
Speaker 1: flag came down for the very last time over the
Speaker 1: Kremlin in Moscow. The hammer and sickle is lord for
Speaker 1: the last time, the Soviet Union was over. The tricolor
Speaker 1: banner of the Russian Republic now flies over the Kremlin.
Speaker 1: Communism was dead, and while men like Craig Cohan saw
Speaker 1: this as a moment of hope for the future, the
Speaker 1: lives of ordinary Russians were plunged into uncertainty. I mean,
Speaker 1: when you lose the system that you've grown up in
Speaker 1: and you have no idea wor else to go. A
Speaker 1: lot of people went out and planting potatoes at their dotches.
Speaker 1: That's Serge Schmimon, the former New York Times correspondent in Moscow.
Speaker 1: We've been hearing from throughout this series. Our office car
Speaker 1: was a Volvo station wagon. So some of these people
Speaker 1: would ask us to go with them to their dotch
Speaker 1: and bring back their potatoes because you know, big bags
Speaker 1: to bring them back to Moscow. They were planting potatoes
Speaker 1: because at that point in time, potatoes were the safest
Speaker 1: way to make sure you had food. The ruble was collapsing,
Speaker 1: the shops filled up, but the number of people who
Speaker 1: could afford anything plummeted. People's life savings were suddenly worthless.
Speaker 1: So he went into a period of kind of an
Speaker 1: elemental primitive economy where factories traded with each other. You know,
Speaker 1: I'll give you a window if you give me a banana.
Speaker 1: Remember hearing about the Russian black market. It always sounded
Speaker 1: so spylike, so covert, so underground. Well here it is
Speaker 1: at its lowest level, and strange things gained value. This
Speaker 1: man stripped down a TV set, hoping to make enough
Speaker 1: money just to buy milk or bread a peck of Marlboroughs.
Speaker 1: Marlborough's cigarettes was roughly the equivalent of a dollar. You' Barnert,
Speaker 1: who was a barter economy and never went anywhere without
Speaker 1: four or five cartons of Marlborough's. A cigarette was better
Speaker 1: value than cash. Because when communism collapsed, the new government
Speaker 1: made a drastic decision. With the help of economic advisors
Speaker 1: from America, they decided the best way to transition the
Speaker 1: economy from a communist to a capitalist system was to
Speaker 1: do it all at once. In the old Soviet Union,
Speaker 1: the government controlled prices. Overnight, those price controls were removed,
Speaker 1: which meant that the candy that used to cost one
Speaker 1: rouble now cost two thousand. Shoppers stead in disbelief at
Speaker 1: what they now have to pay for the most basic goods.
Speaker 1: Ham for example, pull at more than a thousand roubles
Speaker 1: a kilo. That's two months worth of wages for most people.
Speaker 1: The economists called it shock therapy. You had to let
Speaker 1: the system go, and it had to find its own bottom,
Speaker 1: and it had to start rebuilding. Overnight the cash economy collapsed.
Speaker 1: The problem for shoppers here these days isn't the long
Speaker 1: lines Russians are used to waiting in line. Their concern
Speaker 1: is what happens when they reached the end of that line.
Speaker 1: There they'll find either bread or milk three or four
Speaker 1: times higher than they were just weeks ago, or worse,
Speaker 1: no food at all. This also led to a wave
Speaker 1: of crime sweeping through Moscow. You had a lot of theft.
Speaker 1: The streets became dangerous. They say that some people belong
Speaker 1: to the mafia here. Do you know anything about that? No? No, no,
Speaker 1: for us, you know, I mean we were a dressed
Speaker 1: in Western closing in Western cars. Our car was stolen twice.
Speaker 1: This man's parting shot my favorite. The mafia is forever.
Speaker 1: Organized crime was emerging from the ruins of the Soviet Empire.
Speaker 1: A period of straight up banitry set in. In order
Speaker 1: to get by in the new Russia, you had to
Speaker 1: do things that you would never have dreamt of just
Speaker 1: a few months earlier. By early nineteen ninety two, Craig
Speaker 1: Khan is setting up his Coca Cola factory in Moscow,
Speaker 1: but he's beginning to realize this is not the friendly,
Speaker 1: hopeful Russia he arrived in back in nineteen ninety. Things
Speaker 1: have changed so quickly, and if he's going to succeed,
Speaker 1: it's becoming clear he's going to have to change too.
Speaker 1: I'm on the way to the office at five thirty
Speaker 1: in the morning to try to start up all the equipment,
Speaker 1: et cetera, etc. And I get a note from our
Speaker 1: security that a Rocca propelled hand grenate just went through
Speaker 1: my office. No one's hurt, but Craig is shaken. This
Speaker 1: is a far cry from the quiet streets of Toronto,
Speaker 1: and I said, oh, that's good. I'm glad it wasn't there.
Speaker 1: So I asked the security where was it? Shot? From
Speaker 1: otoshop from the big apartment block across the street. I
Speaker 1: have this very clearly in my head, so I said, okay,
Speaker 1: let's go find out who it is. So hard thumping
Speaker 1: Craig climbs into one of those old Soviet elevators, about
Speaker 1: the size of a porta potty and smelling like one too.
Speaker 1: He's got no clue what he'll find at the top.
Speaker 1: I go to the twelfth floor and I meet with
Speaker 1: the head of the San Suski Simia, the san Subski family.
Speaker 1: It's like a local racketeering group that started rough enough people.
Speaker 1: I sat down with him, just one on one, and
Speaker 1: I said, why did you put a rock and propelled
Speaker 1: hand grenade through my office this morning? And he said,
Speaker 1: I've been wanting to meet you, And I really didn't
Speaker 1: know how else to get your attention, because I'd like
Speaker 1: my guys just to be your drivers. And I said, perfect,
Speaker 1: you didn't have to do that, and so I hired
Speaker 1: a bunch of the guys. So now these grenade throwing
Speaker 1: mobster are working for Craig and Coca Cola. The man
Speaker 1: who'd come to the Soviet Union as a pioneer started
Speaker 1: looking more and more like a pirate. A new breed
Speaker 1: of person began to take control in Russia. While most
Speaker 1: people lost their life savings after the Soviet Union collapsed,
Speaker 1: a handful saw an opportunity, an opportunity to buy entire industries, oil, gas,
Speaker 1: raw materials for peanuts. These people, you might know them
Speaker 1: as oligarchs, became the rulers of the new capitalist Russia.
Speaker 1: And that meant that people who used to be valued
Speaker 1: in Soviet society, teachers, doctors, cosmonauts, no longer were. That's
Speaker 1: when I remember long lines of really well dressed people selling,
Speaker 1: you know, sweaters and whatever they could choose. It was
Speaker 1: terribly said. Everything had turned topsy turvy. Those who had
Speaker 1: been up were now down. University professors selling socks in
Speaker 1: the subway, criminals working for Coca Cola, and cosmonauts now
Speaker 1: making less money than taxi drivers. In early nineteen ninety two,
Speaker 1: Serge was making five hundred rubles a month, just two
Speaker 1: dollars and fifty cents at the new exchange rate. He
Speaker 1: was a highly trained engineer, a national hero, still up
Speaker 1: in space, risking his life for his country, and now
Speaker 1: struggling to support his wife and baby daughter. And that's
Speaker 1: when rumors started going around that things had gotten so
Speaker 1: bad the cosmonauts were actually going on strike. There was
Speaker 1: a silence from Citigay at that point. He's quite a voluble,
Speaker 1: garrylous type of man. He always has something interesting to say.
Speaker 1: But there was silence at that point. That's after the break.
Speaker 1: It's a sunny morning on the other side of the
Speaker 1: world from Moscow. Ham radio operator Maggie I Quinto is
Speaker 1: out running errands in Colak, her little town in western Australia.
Speaker 1: She parks her car on the wide, flat highway that
Speaker 1: cuts through the middle of the town and gets her
Speaker 1: shopping bags out of the trunk. She's heading towards the
Speaker 1: bakery when a battered farm truck pulls up next to her.
Speaker 1: I would be stopped in the street and people who
Speaker 1: my heart they knew, would say, how are our cosmonauts?
Speaker 1: Our cosmonauts. It turns out, in the months that Maggie
Speaker 1: had been talking to Mirror, the whole town of Colak
Speaker 1: had fallen in love with these Soviet spacemen too. These
Speaker 1: guys would pass me. I've never seen these farmers before,
Speaker 1: and they look at me and point to the sky
Speaker 1: and go are they okay? But today the farmer driving
Speaker 1: the truck looks worried. He's heard things about the cosmonauts.
Speaker 1: The cosmonauts salaries are worthless. Their families can barely afford groceries,
Speaker 1: so they're gonna stop working. They're going on strike. Maggie
Speaker 1: tries to dismiss the stories as rumors, but soon newspapers
Speaker 1: or publishing stuff that's even more wild. Not only are
Speaker 1: the cosmonauts on strike, they're actually stuck in space. These
Speaker 1: newspaper stories have terrifying headlines like junked in space and
Speaker 1: stuck in endless orbit. They're being stranded there, They're being punished.
Speaker 1: That's what the rumors said, that they were left there deliberately,
Speaker 1: no one was going to bring them down. They even
Speaker 1: say Serage is ill. The journalists rang up Sigh his
Speaker 1: wife and asked her about his illness, which is must
Speaker 1: have been rather devastating for her to listen to. All
Speaker 1: this time, Maggie's thinking, what's going on here? She's been
Speaker 1: talking to Sergee nearly every day and he seems fine,
Speaker 1: chatting to her about their kids, his spacewalks, Newham radio technology,
Speaker 1: but she can't shake this doubt. Are they okay? Is
Speaker 1: there something they aren't telling me? And then one day
Speaker 1: Maggie gets a call. A radio station in Melbourne rang
Speaker 1: me and said, please, can you find out is it
Speaker 1: true about all of these things? Now? In the past,
Speaker 1: Maggie has stayed clear of asking Sarage about politics, not
Speaker 1: wanting to put him on edge. But today, with the
Speaker 1: world's press writing these strange stories and people stopping her
Speaker 1: in the street, Maggie decides she's going to be direct
Speaker 1: with Sarage. She's going to ask for the truth. What
Speaker 1: is really happening to her friends, her cosmonauts? So is
Speaker 1: it okay? I'll send them a message again electronically, and
Speaker 1: I'll ask them these questions. But there's no guarantee. They're very,
Speaker 1: very busy up there. They have much work to do,
Speaker 1: and I don't know if they'll answer. Her fingers shaking
Speaker 1: a little, Maggie started typing. So the questions. I asked them,
Speaker 1: where are you hungry? Is it true that you're on strike?
Speaker 1: Has your supply ship docked? Do you like being on strike?
Speaker 1: And they say, Segay, that you have fallen ill? Is
Speaker 1: that true? And those were the questions. Maggie hits send
Speaker 1: and she waits on mirror. Sarah Gay sees the question
Speaker 1: flood in. He's taken aback for months. Speaking to Maggie
Speaker 1: had just been a bit of light relief, a bit
Speaker 1: of fun, But between the lines of her anxious questions,
Speaker 1: he can see her concern for him. He knows he
Speaker 1: has to respond straight away. Minutes Maggie's old Tshiba is
Speaker 1: flashing with a new message, Greetings Rita, which is my name,
Speaker 1: he said. Australia is located at the other side of
Speaker 1: the Earth from Moscow. It's very far so news is
Speaker 1: greatly changed when it reaches you. People in Australia and
Speaker 1: Moscow wok upside down from each other. Maybe this is
Speaker 1: the reason your news arrives reversed. But what about the
Speaker 1: strike everyone's talking about. We're Sergey and his colleagues refusing
Speaker 1: to work, and he said that there was a threatened
Speaker 1: strike at flight Control. But it's impossible, he said, for
Speaker 1: him to go on strike. And as you can imagine,
Speaker 1: they have to keep things running on the space station
Speaker 1: and if they were to go on strike, they would die.
Speaker 1: Maggie is relieved, but then she gets another call from
Speaker 1: a journalist. Listen, I've got this tip off. You're not
Speaker 1: going to believe this, but apparently the Russians are thinking
Speaker 1: of selling the space station. Maggie thinks fake news. She
Speaker 1: knows things are changing over there, but the Russians would
Speaker 1: never put their space station up for sale. This is
Speaker 1: the crowning glory of Soviet space technology. But the journalist
Speaker 1: says to her, look, the next time you're talking to
Speaker 1: these fellows, asked them about the selling of Mirror the
Speaker 1: space station, and so I did. There was a silence
Speaker 1: from Sergey at that point. He's quite a voluble, garrulous
Speaker 1: type of man. He always has something interesting to say.
Speaker 1: But there was silence at that point, and he said, look,
Speaker 1: I'll talk with mission control. And at that point I'm
Speaker 1: going to guess, and I don't really know, but I'm
Speaker 1: going to guess at that news had not reached them.
Speaker 1: After everything Sarage has been through archologically, it must have
Speaker 1: been devastating. Look, I reckon it would have been to
Speaker 1: hear from someone in Australia that the country he'd sacrificed
Speaker 1: everything for might sell his home from under his feet.
Speaker 1: That's next time on The Last Soviet. The Last Soviet
Speaker 1: is a Kaleidoscope production in partnership with iHeart Podcast and
Speaker 1: Exile Media, produced by Sama's Dad Audio and hosted by
Speaker 1: me Lance Bass Executive produced by Kate Osbourne and Mangesh
Speaker 1: had a Kador with Oz Wallashan and Kostas Linos from
Speaker 1: iHeart executive produced by Katrina Norvelle and Nikki Ettore from
Speaker 1: Sama's Dad Audio are Executive producers are Joe Sikes and
Speaker 1: Dasha Lissina. Produced by Asia Fuchs, Dasha Litzitzina and Joe Sikes.
Speaker 1: Writing by Lydia Marchant, Research by Mika Golobovski and Molly Schwartz,
Speaker 1: music by Will Epstein, Themed by Martin Orstrin, Mixing and
Speaker 1: sound design by Richard Ward and special thanks to Nando
Speaker 1: Via Welissa Pollock, Will Pearson, Connel Byrne, Bob Pittman, and
Speaker 1: Isaac Lee. If you want to hear more shows like this,
Speaker 1: nothing is more important to the creators here at Kaleidoscope
Speaker 1: than subscribers, ratings, and reviews, so please spread the love
Speaker 1: wherever you listen.