Chic Elena Perminova AKA Wife of Alexander Lebedev - 'I Love Russians'

I love Russians. Saying this I am a world traveller and embrace, love and cherish all people. But there is something about Russians, I have to admit. Two little anecdotes will explain: When I was young my mother 'schlepped' me across the globe in order to quench her thirst for travel, for people and for culture. She used to say to me, 'why leave Germany and then just spend time abroad with Germans speaking German and eating German food. That does not make sense, Linda.' My second first name and possibly the only name all of my German friends know me by. But forgive me I digress. 

So we travelled. Quite literally. We left home, packed a ton (also literally) and immersed ourselves in another culture, the people, their customs, food, traditions, all of it. As a teenager I did not see the merit of the above. I see it now. Though I also cherish being home, I have to admit. But I fondly remember that whenever I arrived somewhere new, foreign and ever so slightly strange and different (in the most positive sense), my mother found almost instantly Russians to spend time with and smoke, drink and talk politics and sometimes football (as Germans do). I also remember not so fondly that there were countless nights were she and her new friends sat together and spoke loudly, passionately and confidently about what was important, not caring about the time of day, the topic at hand nor anything else. I love the Russians for their strong, powerful character to speak direct what is on their minds. They are clear, no flowers to pass to get to the real thing.

I have met a good friend of mine recently for a playdate and she (also like me) is not British; she is Swedish, confident, passionate and loud(er). We connected instantly. So as we were talking about the usual we found ourselves yet again agreeing on the fact that the British like to speak in tongue, are the complete opposite of direct and sometimes hard to reach with straight forward discourse. We laughed aloud when stating almost instantaneously that we speak in a straightforward manner as it is custom in Europe (especially in Germany and I have now learnt in Sweden too) to be direct to get things done. This brings me back to the Russians, whom I love because they are direct, which I like. 

I get it straight away.

https://www.instagram.com/lenaperminova