Steve Rosenberg, the BBC's Russian Editor, has lived in Moscow for over a quarter of a century. He not only talks to politicians (he's interviewed government officials, oligarchs, (former?) mobsters, even billionaire owners of English football clubs - Rosenberg is the only Brit granted access to Putin's interminable press conferences - but his stock in trade is talking to regular Joes (Joeskis?) on the street about what it's like to live in the largest country in the world and who are definitely not at war with Ukraine. Taking the pulse of this Eastern European behemoth whose land mass covers 11 time zones is not easy as every word is, potentially, being evesdropped and could land interviewer and or interviewee in the Gulag. Or worse.
Steve was the guest on the latest The Rest is Politics 'Leading' podcast and it was towards the end of this fascinating conversation with Alistair Campbell and Rory Stewart that Steve told listeners about the woman in the kiosk he'd been buying his newspapers from for the last 25 years. Valentina has lived in the city all her life and two years ago, in her late sixties, was diagnosed with cancer. Steve had filmed a lot of their conversations (with Valentina's consent) and would post them on YouTube. Valentina then left Moscow to receive treatment and Steve wrote a song for her (he's an excellent pianist); the story was then picked up by a member of the BBC singers who'd followed her story on YouTube. They and Steve have now turned it into a beautiful piece of music. Listen to the end of the podcast to see how it landed with Valentina. In the meantime, here is Steve Rosenberg with the BBC Singers and 'Valentina's Kiosk'.
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