Very few people are aware that all these virtual hotties and Kournikova leg-alikes on the net are just ordinary shop assistants.

Quite simply, Russian shop assistants are unable to meet anyone in the normal way. Not even their customers. The ubiquitous Soviet kiosk is designed in such a way that eye contact - or any other contact - is impossible. One serves or is served through a prison style handhole. The only touchy feely possibilities are a jar of Bulgarian pickles and a few roubles in change.

My local Novgorod corner shop. God knows who works in it.

 

                                         What Is The Best Present You Can Give A Russian Woman?

I am often asked this question. And I always warn against giving Russian Women lavish or expensive gifts. It only spoils the girls and gives them ideas above their station.

On a simple trip, I usually take a large bunch of plastic flowers. Plastic flowers always remain fresh and springy during the rigours of travel. Also, modern plastic flowers are put together with this really neat, snap-click mechanism so you can split bouquets easily. This means you don’t have to waste the whole bunch on a woman you are not quite sure about.

Increasingly, I notice that Russian girls are always borrowing my black shoe polish to do their eyes. So now I take the little bottles of liquid black shoe polish with the sponge applicator on the top. These they find very convenient and, therefore, a welcome and unpretentious gift.

                                                          Plastic bags are perfect

In ‘What Is The Best Present You Can Give A Russian Woman?’ I warned against lavishing gifts on Russian girls. It only gives them the wrong idea.

Before you know what’s happening, she will slip her skinny little arm in yours, pull you close and whisper something really intimate. Like, ‘I want go bankomat wiz you’.

At the same time, however, I can understand men who want to give a special woman that little something. And here Novgorod’s market came up trumps. In our typical local rinuk, there are two stalls that sell nothing but pockets - or plastic carrier bags as we call them. As you can imagine, high quality Western carrier bags, able to hold several kilos of cabbage without splitting, are much prized in Russia. And if colourful too, such an admired carrier can fetch as much as 30 roubles.

One of Novgorod’s chic ‘pocket’ shops