Dear CCI friends,

The largest and most extensive investigative trip to Russia is now history. Without a doubt there has not been another Russia trip dedicated to understanding where Russia is today (or yesterday), what her cities look like, how Russian people are faring, what their level of culture is, their social services, financial well being, education, their sense of the future, their respect (or lack thereof) of their leadership and a multitude of other indicators.

For this trip we intentionally forgot what US mainstream media prints about Russia and Russians and used our own lenses and ears to get at the truth.

Our 24 American travelers went to a total of nine different Russian regions and 14 Russian cities and towns, some huge ones, a few small ones and one tiny town. We traveled on planes, trains and in one case automobiles.  We got to see huge new airports, town-to-town train stations and back country roads. Those of us going to Yaroslavl traveled overnight in a Soviet-era train. It was the first I’ve seen in decades––clean but looking to be a relic from 100 years ago. Some of us got to see the huge new bridge connecting Crimea to Russia, the longest in Europe (19 kilometers or 12 miles).

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Dear CCI Friends,

We wish you could have been with us from August 30 to Sept 15 as 25 of us scattered across thousands of miles (kilometers) in Russia, meeting with Russian citizens for the first time in city-after-city.  We will continue to send you our Foto-Journals as they come in from travelers just returning to the states.

This is one from Mike Metz and his wife Kathy who stayed on in St. Petersburg after the group departed for the U.S.

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

“My dear friend” is how we are addressed frequently in Russia, by those with whom we’ve shared a meal, a museum, or a day. It’s endearing.

We spent yesterday with a fellow I’m happy to consider a new dear friend, Alexey, an interior decorator, painter of murals, and unparalleled expert on St. Petersburg architecture. Here’s a photo:

One of the best aspects of a CCI trip to Russia is the diversity of people and opinions to whom you’re introduced. On the hot button issue of Vladimir Putin the opinions are near 50-50. A media big shot says, “foreign policy good, domestic policies bad;” our young Moscow tour guide, “hate him but voted for him—he means stability;” and of course, the Crimeans love him, “he saved us from the fascists.” [Continue Reading]

Dear CCI Friends,

Our September CCI travelers to Russia are beginning to get the trip accounts written out! The Crimea group, which included trial lawyer Sylvia Demarest from Dallas, anesthesiologist Glenn Rennels from Palo Alto, CA, and Mike and Kathy Metz from Silicon Valley, spent several days in Crimea where they visited Simferopol (the capital), Yalta and Sevastopol where Russia’s Naval Fleet has been stationed since the 1850’s. Enjoy the following foto-journal from our citizen diplomat Sylvia Demarest.

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

Dear Friends:

I was in a bit of a rush to get this out—so much so I neglected to mention someone without whom we would have all been lost!!  Our good friend Tatyana Bukharina organized all of this,  got us where we needed to go, made sure we understood the history of Crimea, and translated everything for us.  Tatyana is truly an outstanding historian, a fine scholar, and a wonderful person as well.  Without Tatyana the Quad Pod would have been completely lost. My thanks and appreciation to this outstanding historian and patriot of Crimea.   The Dallas RMMA volunteers also remember her fondly.  Thank you Tatyana!

On the 5th of September, our group split up and traveled to 8 different regions including Yaraslov, Saratov, Perm/Kungur, Krasnodar, Novosibirsk, Ripin,  Irkutsk, and Crimea. I was part of the group that went to Crimea.  I called the four of us who traveled to Crimea together the “Quad Pod”. Our experience in Crimea was very intense and personal for each of us.   The “Pod” included me, Michael and Katherine Metz, and Glenn Rennels. Michael is a retired Silicon Valley executive who had worked for Cisco and Apple, his wife Katherine, an MBA with a background in marketing, Glenn is a retired anesthesiologist, and bringing up the rear with a law degree and a background as a civil trial lawyer was yours truly. We had no idea what we were about to experience.

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Dear CCI friends,

Kudos to Mike Metz for his terrific foto-journal pages of our September group while traveling throughout Russia. This is a very different place than what we read about in mainstream media. In the capital cities and in the regions, Russian people are friendly and their students are quite interested in talking with us.  Russian cities are clean, trimmed and well-lighted.  It’s clear local people feel safe at night on their streets, parks and metros. There are few policemen/women around and they don’t carry guns. To me it reminds me of my youth in Kentucky in the 40s and 50s. Our downtown areas were safe, as were our river banks. Kids rode their bicycles until dark set in and there were few street lights around.

Russia’s youth today wear the same styles as ours, but it’s clear there is a more conservative trend in clothing than a decade ago. Gone are the scant show-all cleavage of the 1990s, hemlines are somewhat lower than earlier.  One sees young women in skirts and classic jeans … with lots of long straight hair like our youth. They don’t seem to have a “grunge culture.” Everyone has a smart phone and all seem to be connected to another reality. Russian parents and youth are admitting this and questioning whether or not this is a healthy trend.

Enjoy the latest foto-journal from Mike Metz.

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

I’ve never been to a Rotary Club meeting in the U.S., as I’ve always worked for large companies, not the small businesses that typically make up the clubs. But we were invited to a meeting in St. Petersburg tonight. The clubs started there back in the wild 90’s, after communism died and the Russians were trying to figure out capitalism. Here is tonight’s group:

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