Conversations 105: Pyotr Patrushev

Pyotr Patrushev is a Russian interpreter; he sits next to western leaders when they meet with Vladimir Putin or other senior Russians.

Pyotr has lived in the West for many years now, but he grew up in the 1950s, in what was then the Soviet Union.

His family lived in a Siberian village so cold the stove took up a quarter of the living space of his family's hut.

His mother would protect the firewood heap from theft, by carefully concealing a quantity of gunpowder wihin a single log of wood. They could tell who was the thief by waiting for the subsequent explosion elsewhere in the village.

Pyotr became a competitive swimmer with an eye to the Olympics and he joined the Soviet army. But when a sadistic officer began to brutally haze him, he realised his life was in grave danger.

At first he faked insanity by studing psychiatric textbooks. Then Pyotr hatched a wildly ambitious escape plan; to swim all night across a stretch of the Black Sea, in the hope that he could evade search lights and patrol boats, and make it to the Turkish coast.

But in Turkey he was accused of being a Soviet spy; he was held in solitary confinment and interrogated for a year before he was let go to the West.

Pyotr Patrushev is a Russian interpreter; he sits next to western leaders when they meet with Vladimir Putin or other senior Russians.

Pyotr has lived in the West for many years now, but he grew up in the 1950s, in what was then the Soviet Union.

His family lived in a Siberian village so cold the stove took up a quarter of the living space of his family's hut.

His mother would protect the firewood heap from theft, by carefully concealing a quantity of gunpowder wihin a single log of wood. They could tell who was the thief by waiting for the subsequent explosion elsewhere in the village.

Pyotr became a competitive swimmer with an eye to the Olympics and he joined the Soviet army. But when a sadistic officer began to brutally haze him, he realised his life was in grave danger.

At first he faked insanity by studing psychiatric textbooks. Then Pyotr hatched a wildly ambitious escape plan; to swim all night across a stretch of the Black Sea, in the hope that he could evade search lights and patrol boats, and make it to the Turkish coast.

But in Turkey he was accused of being a Soviet spy; he was held in solitary confinment and interrogated for a year before he was let go to the West.

Pyotr Patrushev is a Russian interpreter; he sits next to western leaders when they meet with Vladimir Putin or other senior Russians.

Pyotr has lived in the West for many years now, but he grew up in the 1950s, in what was then the Soviet Union.

His family lived in a Siberian village so cold the stove took up a quarter of the living space of his family's hut.

His mother would protect the firewood heap from theft, by carefully concealing a quantity of gunpowder wihin a single log of wood. They could tell who was the thief by waiting for the subsequent explosion elsewhere in the village.

Pyotr became a competitive swimmer with an eye to the Olympics and he joined the Soviet army. But when a sadistic officer began to brutally haze him, he realised his life was in grave danger.

At first he faked insanity by studing psychiatric textbooks. Then Pyotr hatched a wildly ambitious escape plan; to swim all night across a stretch of the Black Sea, in the hope that he could evade search lights and patrol boats, and make it to the Turkish coast.

But in Turkey he was accused of being a Soviet spy; he was held in solitary confinment and interrogated for a year before he was let go to the West.