Nizhny Novgorod - Yekaterinburg

"There's no hurry" Famous last words, found in my phrasebook, as I assure Dimitry that we can certainly do the interview after he and his colleagues have had something to eat. I am looking forward to speaking with the four of them, Gazprom engineers on their way to a new gas station in the far North of Russia. The site is two hours helicopter flight from Yigursk, which almost qualifies as the middle of nowhere itself.

About two hours later Dimitry knocks slightly arythmically on the door of my compartment and asks whether I would like to do the interview now. I realise I have been very niavely interpreted the meaning of "something to eat" as he, Nikolai and Vladimir have already enoyed a considerable amount of vodka. Cucumbers, similarly pickled, are merely a sideshow to the alcohol themed main event. Alexsander, the driver, is not drinking but he doesn't speak English and is asleep on the top bunk.

The interview process gets gradually harder, due to the continual vodka consumption by both the interviewees and the interviewer, fearing that refusal may well offend. The cucumber supply is soon exhausted but this does not dissuade the engineers from opening another bottle. Despite Dimitry's earlier agreement that it would be better to speak in Russian during the interview he now wants only to speak in English. His knowledge of the language, gained while docked in Hull as a sailor in the Russian Navy, has unfortunately suffered under the deluge of alcohol and once I have recorded their names both questions and answers begin to lack coherence. Nikolai suddenly slumps forward into the remains of his wife's cucumbers and begins to snore but I persevre. After a few more glasses, Vladimir offers to take me up to the gas station. "It will be an exclusive, he says, which is true enough though he and Dimitry are not sure when I would be able to return. The time frame may well be weeks and after the initial excitement of a Gazprom helicopter into the wilderness I sensed that the appeal of the trip might wane rapidly and so I decline.