Much that we read of Russia is imagination and desire only.

I'm an afternoon tea type of girl. I come from a Russian background where we love our teas. So between lunch and dinner after training I come home and I love a nice cup of tea with jam in it as we drink it there. Black English Breakfast with raspberry jam is my favorite.

The great drama of Russian history has been between its state and society. Put simply Russia has always had too much state and not enough society.

Russians can give you arms but only the United States can give you a solution.

If you don't know how great this country is I know someone who does Russia.

There is a Western world. There is America. There is Great Britain and Germany and France and Russia and China and other nations. I doubt that there is one country amongst those I mentioned which has a desire to see Iran with its fundamentalist Islamic extremist government possessing nuclear weapons.

I guess the real reason that my wife and I had children is the same reason that Napoleon had for invading Russia: it seemed like a good idea at the time.

I would like to raise my glass to friendship between Russia and the United States.

I grew up under Communism so we could only learn Russian and then when Communism fell in 1989 we could learn a few more things and have the freedom to travel and the freedom of speech - and the freedom of dreaming really.

Jazz is about freedom within discipline. Usually a dictatorship like in Russia and Germany will prevent jazz from being played because it just seemed to represent freedom democracy and the United States.