[struwwelpeter]

She's got some good points when she sticks to what she knows. That concept of "negotiated access" goes by the word blat. If someone can get something for you, you've got blat. With my rotten accent, it would come out blyad', which is an awful swear word ;-)

What's weird, is that the adjective of blat is blatnoy, which refers to the criminal underground and the songs celebrating it.

I haven't read "From Nyet to Da", but I'll have a look at it. I think Churchill(?) put it best when he said: "The two stupidest statements I ever heard were 'alcohol doesn't make me drunk' and 'I understand the Russians'."

[MarMema]

and 'I understand the Russians

ROFL!!! You got that one on the money.

[MarMema]

Well let me ask you this. Have you ever been in Russia and sat on the floor at the airport, or a step in public, such as at the Moscow Aeroflot offices? Or worse, in a dept store hallway? LOL.

[MarMema]

Thanks for telling me about the negotiated access and the word for it.