Thread by @bansisharma

1. Observations From A Trip To Moscow

Many moons ago, I visited Russia. I had the pleasure of getting a personal conducted tour of Kremlin, which at the time was being prepped for a visit from the president of the United States.

2. Grand Kremlin Palace that was formerly the Tsar's Moscow residence now serves as the official residence of the President of the Russian Federation. The Kremlin overlooks the Moskva River to the south, and Saint Basil's Cathedral and Red Square to the east.

3. Kremlin Palace, Putin's current residence, surprisingly presents quite an austere look. Very high ceilings and columns, but huge walls with almost nothing displayed on them. The minimalist look was quite jarring actually. This was before Putin's time, but not much has changed.

4. I saw Bolshoi Ballet in Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. It was gorgeous! So was the metro station. I also saw Vladimir Lenin's embalmed body in Red Square (yes they still have his body, the real one, on display). That was creepy!

5. Then I saw something else which reminded me how "great" (don't miss the sarcasm) Soviet Union was before the Berlin wall came down. It was a beautiful restaurant in one corner of the Red Square, which I was told was the most endearing restaurant for ordinary Russians.

6. Ordinary people could always get a warm meal there, even though there were very long lines to get in. Apparently it was not easy to get a meal in Moscow during the closing years of the Cold War, no matter how much money you had, because there wasn't enough food to go around.

7. The restaurant was painted red and it had beautiful golden arches. Yes indeed, it was a beautiful McDonald's -- apparently the best restaurant in Moscow during late 1980's. You didn't have to be 'connected' to eat there. Whole families could eat there without fear or favor.

8. Incidentally, I went to Moscow (and to Saint Petersburg) after the wall came down, on a business trip. I was invited to give a talk to a conference of bankers on the "Future of Money."

The End

P.S. Oh, I forgot. I swear this is a true story (as told to me by a local Russian guide in Moscow 20+ years ago). McDonald’s had a roaring Mail Order meat business in Russia, because the only packaged meat Russians trusted back then was the one that had McDonald’s seal on it.