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It is actually an artform to drink with Russians and also Scandinavians in that civilised manner (and similar, the order of things to "drink to"). It depends (on my observation as a bloody stuipd foreigner in all cases) on the circumstances, but often starts with "thanking for the food". The first five or ten items on the list are better left to professionals, later on you can more or less safely chime in, say something about "friendship", or "the past success" and the "future success". By that point in time you are forgiven some sins, especially if you are still standing as a bloody foreigner.

And the good Russian Cognac (ok, equivalent distilled wine spirits, since "cognac" is DOC) is really good! I have fond memories of that, and my friends and colleagues.

To the health of you and your families!

(----> wrong drink, sorry....)

The Chinese have also turned politeness and respect into an drinking art form. A celebration "meal" with a delegation of Chinese customers after any kind of project success needs at least the next morning off work to recover.

干杯

And art for that was used to place the Rover team in a, err, less attentive mood by the Chinese who weren't actually drinking the toasts during negotiations...

Years ago doing a project for an austrian bank, had to go to the Ukraine (amongst many other ex-eastern block countries) for a meeting.

Went to dinner in the evening with the local heads of bank and vodka was brought out at the start that was so cold it was like syrup, had to have a bunch of shots and I had a stinking cold, knew it was rude to decline. They pointed out some men at the other end of the restaurant who used to be the top dogs in the KGB and what they used to do. An interesting view into local stuff.

At a Georgian feast (a supra), you have an appointed toast master (tamada) who leads everyone through the toasts. After each toast, you must completely drink the glass of wine (if you're lucky) or chacha (moonshine). There can be 100+ toasts in your typical 6+ hour supra, expect to drink 3L or more wine..

Many, many years ago, a friend bought from new, a Moskvich. Aware of the car's reputation for rusting he had it "Ziebarted" ie rustproofed/undersealed.

It rusted from the outside.....

He should have bought a Trabi (Trabant), they are made of Duroplast.

Remember my mate picking up a lada from an auction (his xr2 was wrapped round a tree by a 14 year old). The full tank and 4 new tyres were worth more than he paid for the car

Are you sure he didn't buy it from the showroom instead of an auction?

I was giving a talk once to a meeting in a well-known Scottish town, and a local had been deputed to meet me at the station. So we identified each other and went out to his car - a Lada. I have never heard so much gear whine in my life! It was far worse than the whine from the transfer gear on old Minis. I don't suppose the Russians thought it worthwhile to spend effort on helical gears.

In the 80s various Russian touring perfume ring orchestras and groups always insisted on a performance in Aberdeen.

The reason being there was a local scrap yard with the biggest collection of used Lada spares in the world. Virtuoso violinists could be seen rummaging around for an alternator, ballet dancers getting grubby searching for a windscreen motor for granny’s car etc.

When Lada withdrew from the UK market (with the likes of Proton, Kia etc. filling the budget gap) a lot of the old Ladas were exported back to Russia, where the standard fit UK spec (demisters etc.) was appreciated.

Their modern products, the likes of the Vesta as sold in Germany, are a world away from the old Fiat based models.

I heard the demisters on the rear windows are so your hands don't get cold when you have to push start them.

I don't know why people diss Ladas. I had one for a decade. An annual service and the odd tank petrol, and I did many trouble free miles. I rate it as the most confortable car I had for long distance travel. It was a Samara, the GL model. This meant it had sunroof and speakers. If you wanted a stereo, you had to fork out for the GLX model. A £10 radio/cassette player from a market stall saw me right. Always started first turn of the key on the coldest of mornings - it laughed at the UK idea of winter.

If you want to see how tenacious Ladas are, pop onto Garage54's channel on youtube. Vlad and the boys subject Ladas to all kinds of abuse and they always rise to the challenge.

My first car was a Lada Niva (the 4x4) that was handed down from my Dad.

It was almost bulletproof - it once went through a stone wall in Derbyshire without so much as a scratch, and always started straight away on even the coldest morning.

The thing that always amused me most was that, should the starter motor ever fail, there was a hole in the front bumper to allow the use of a starting handle.

Comment from a Niva-owner that I know:

"It is amazing that it is possible to buld such a good car from such a collection of horribly bad parts!"

Also: The obligatory Lada Niva song:

https://youtu.be/gbdrllUXI3w

Samara was at least their attempt at a modern Front Wheel Drive model, with Porsche helping with the engine.

My youngest brother in law had a Lada when he was at Uni. When he landed a decent job, and could afford a real car, he put the Lada in Expand and Fart (long before t'Interwebs). He left the Lada at his parents' house, and delegated his mother to field any enquiries. One day an Indian gentleman came around to inspect it, but was surprised that it was a car, he wanted a ladder.

I was doing a lot of travelling to an interesting country to work on their banking system. One day, in the UK, I had a meeting with 'John' who used to work in the Foreign Ofice, and was told to take care when travelling abroad.

1. if you keep getting the same room in a hotel - this may have hidden cameras, so be careful who you invite back to your room

2. assume there are cameras watching you as you type into your laptop, obscure your keyboard when you type passwords

3. take a bare bones laptop - with nothing on it; with you, in case it gets 'lost'. I said this was a problem as I needed tools on the laptop to do my job.

4. lock your laptop in the hotel safe when not using it. (Though once when I did lock something in the hotel room's safe, the lock was broken and the under-manager came along with his set of screwdrivers to unlock it)

5. check people in meetings to make sure they are genuine

I think 'they' were after people who had worked in new technology such as batteries or solar panels, and carried the plans on the laptops, rather than the throughput of data between two sites.

I checked "John" in our internal phone book, (see 5. above) and he did not exist - spook-y !

>4. lock your laptop in the hotel safe when not using it. (Though once when I did lock something in the hotel room's safe, the lock was broken and the under-manager came along with his set of screwdrivers to unlock it)

I was once staying in a hotel and on checkout day the batteries in the safe (containing my passport and home keys) had run out; the guy from reception managed to open it in a worryingly short amount of time...

While on a week long requirements analysis course in Oxford in the early 90s I got talking to a crowd of Russians in the same hotel who were attending an English For Business course. We got on well throughout the week and when the last of the drinkers on my course went to bed on the last night I joined my new friends who showed no sign of stopping.

I'd grown up in a Staffordshire pit village which was home to many families of Polish descent - their father's had come over during WWII and married local girls and brought along their customs of hospitality, which had some similarities to those of my Russian drinking partners. In particular they taught me how to drink vodka.

We drank well and drank hard. The bar man, who had been drinking with us, fell asleep so we brought out our own supplies rather than cause him any problems with the till. The Russians had a bottle of Smirnoff each, while I had found a bottle of Moskovskaya in a local off licence which was greeted with approbation. We formed bonds of international friendship until dawn, and I was given the compliment that I drank like a Russian. I was, of course, drinking like a Pole.

After an hour's sleep and reeking like a distillery I headed for breakfast before working out that it was a bad idea. What became a worse idea was that the previous day I had been elected to give the final course presentation to several senior suits. I got through that somehow, with some arch comments from my team mates after. After loading my car, I slept in the driving seat for several hours before feeling safe enough to drive home. I started eating again 36 hours later.

Drinking with Russians is a fine, exhilarating activity, but it is best done when young and bold.

I don't drink any more, but I did get several months worth of drinking done in that one night.

Выпьем за то, чтобы у нас всегда был повод для праздника!

In the early 80s, I went to see the RAC rally a couple of times, in the days when there was heavy snow and ice in November. The Ladas and Skodas were great cars, although admittedly rust wasn't an issue over the 5 days of the rally.

Skodas one their class regularly, they were great rally cars, but had a bad reputation in western countries. (Why does a Skoda have a heated rear window? To keep your hands warm, when you push it in winter)

Although they are essentially a badged Volkswagen these days, there is still a stigma attached to them by many older people. I've driven a lot of Skodas in recent years (they are used as pool cars a lot in the companies I've worked at in Germany) and they aren't bad, but I'd still prefer an Estelle built to today's QA standards...

Indeed one of their old taglines was "Surprising Skoda"! I think some rally drivers got the most out of the pendulum-like handling of the engine sitting out back over the rear driven wheels.

I have an Octavia as a family car, a visiting US colleague called it a hatchback Jetta, which is fairly accurate. Seem popular as fleet cars.

An interpreter. Completely different job.