KGB Interrogation in St. Petersburg

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Timeline: February 5^th, 1994 – Visit #6

 Excerpt

I had a scheduled trip to St. Petersburg for my then employer to work on preparations for an event we were organizing in November 1994 at the LenExpo Fairgrounds. It had been arranged that the KGB, whom I spoke with by phone in January, would meet me when I arrived at Pulkovo Airport and would take me to their offices for an interview.

Like clockwork, when the plane landed and pulled up to our spot outside the main arrival terminal, the voice over the intercom asked everyone to remain seated and asked for Steven Douglas, to collect his belongings and approach the front of the aircraft which I did. The side food entrance was opened and standing at the doorway was a plain clothed officer of the KBG I had spoken to on the phone. Down a stair case was an associate and a large black Russian Volga sedan. We drove to the passenger arrival terminal. They told me I was still required to enter customs as I would have with the other passengers but I did so ahead of the rest. Once I collected my baggage I met them out in the welcome area. Leonid was waiting for me also.

 Leonid convinced them to let me go to my hotel first and unwind a bit after my long trip and that we would then meet them at their offices at 5pm that afternoon. After this was agreed to by the officers Leonid and I headed into town to my hotel where we met up with some mutual friends. After spending the day socializing with friends we headed over to Bolshoy Dom.

What eventually became a 9 hour visit to Bolshoy Dom (The Big House), started out very slowly? In fact after parking and arriving at the front door of the building we stood in a freezing cold waiting space between cracked creaking doors with an old dirty grey metal rotary-dial phone on the wall that Leonid used to call inside. We ended up waiting a good ten minutes in that drafty space before we were finally let into the lobby. In the lobby we waited at least another 15 minutes before an officer came downstairs to usher us up to the floor where I would be interviewed…..

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The Games Russians Play: What you need to know

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Excerpt from A Lecture…
To look back at my Russian business experiences from 1990 – 2000, they were anything but typical for an expatriate living a working in St. Petersburg. In thanks to a Russian partner I was introduced to the underworld of Russian business, more specifically the Mafia and occasional glimpses of deep-rooted corruption in the Russian Government. With no thanks to this Russian partner I was also introduced to transnational organized crime and honored with a memorable 8-hour interrogation by the KGB in February 1994.

A top lieutenant in the Russian Mafia Tombovsky Crime Family once told me the difference between a “Good Foreigner” and a “Bad Foreigner”. A good foreigner was what they called a foreign businessperson who came to Russia but had no timeframe set as to when he/she would depart. A bad foreigner on the other hand was classified as a foreign businessperson who came on short trips or a foreigner who came to work in Russia for a short period of time with a scheduled departure date. A majority of foreigners who came to Russia in the 1990’s were considered Bad Foreigners. The foreign partner that was looked upon, as a bad foreigner, was believed not to have a long-term interest in benefiting their Russian partners. The Russian partners were over anxious to find foreign partners for the explicit reason of gaining foreign capital for their enterprises. Following the beginning of privatization, most factories were in serious debt and cash poor, thus the reason for Russia to open her arms to foreigners.

I had many opportunities to watch, and analyze, business relationship between Russians and foreign visitors between the years 1990 and 2000. Soon following the financial crises of 1998 I created and organized the Foreign Commercial Consuls Club of St. Petersburg. Membership consisted of Commercial Consuls from most foreign countries with representations in St. Petersburg. This Club gave me a direct connection to representatives of many different countries and an invaluable opportunity to discuss with them their relations and feelings about the Russian market, culture and people. In early 2002, as an executive in Washington DC, I created a new organization called the Foreign Embassy Club of Washington DC which has membership of foreign diplomats from more than 25 of the area Foreign Diplomatic Missions. This newer Club allows me to continue my research on international relations. The founding members of this Club include the Embassies of the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan and Australia.

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