Sergei Khrushchev Is Coming To Dinner (2014)

Actually, it isn't an upcoming film. I'm having dinner at my uncle's house on Friday and Khrushchev will be there. Should be interesting.

Any questions you folks would like me to ask him? I'm hoping to get his take on what's happening over in Crimea.

Impressive.

Would be interested to know his views on Putin, Ukraine etc. His dad had an indirect part to play in the Crimea kerfuffle, after all, by shifting the (then irrelevant) borders of the Russian and Ukrainian Soviet Republics.

His views on the US and EU would also be welcome.

Also, did dad used to spank him with a shoe?

Ask him about the Swiss bank accounts.

I was told that he only does lectures for 10 grand and upward.

In that case, I hope he doesn't charge me per question.

I'd ask him about Beria, but I'm not sure how that would go over in a casual dinner conversation.

Did CATWOMAN kill Beria's career in Hollywood?

Man, I thought it was the start of a joke :) Seen him on a documentary about jet bombers in the Cold War by James Holland. I'd ask a bunch of questions about Kennedy and the Missile Crisis. The Secret Speech.
Admittedly, I've no specific question in mind.

But have an image of cue cards: "Hilly in Britain would like to know..."

A Ukranian naval officer and doctor were brought into the mix last Saturday, as well. A few interesting points were brought up about the Russian/Ukrainian world issue.

First, the naval officer mentioned that the Russians and separatists were bragging about blowing an aircraft from the sky on July 17th 2014 via social media. Shortly after inspecting the site, the Russians realized that the separatists had shot down a civilian aircraft (with Russian military hardware) and scrambled to erase what they had posted on social media. This was interesting to discover, as the United States media had acted for the longest time as if they had no idea who the fuck shot down MH17. Apparently, they were after a cargo plane, similar to one they had shot down days or weeks before.

I also learned that when Russia first intervened in Ukraine this year, they were surrounding civilian protesters and sniping them from rooftops. The naval officer mentioned that one sniper left a "calling card" by shooting 28-30 civilians through the left eye. Pretty grim.

Not much about the past was brought up. I was also probably the stupidest person in the room, so I couldn't gather the balls to interrupt and ask a few questions.

Dinner was good. Drank about 5 beers and we ended up killing 1.5 bottles of vodka. Russian Standard brand, naturally.

Control wrote:

we ended up killing 1.5 bottles of vodka. Russian Standard brand, naturally.

Per person, I should hope.

Largo's Shark wrote:

Did CATWOMAN kill Beria's career in Hollywood?

The weirdest thing I ever heard about Beria is that even Stalin would never leave the guy alone in a room with one of his female relatives.