Beware of the Krysha (roof) ...!

This is a story I've never told ... It's too damaging

We used to rent our office from the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. During the crisis of 1998 we 'renegotiated' our rent.  We bribed the 'landlady' $10,000 to reduce it

So instead of the Pushkin receiving a decent rent... some nomenklatura/apparatchik witch had a holiday in Dubai ... or somewhere equally awful beloved by Muscovites

This meant that the building was gradually falling to pieces ~ as no 'remont' ever occurred

A few years later our great leader & inspiration, Dmitry Tvatovitch* Yedneral was sitting listening to Whale songs ...or something irritatingly similar ... when some Gips hit his head...

... the Krysha had fallen in

And if you know Russian, you'll know that Krysha is slang for mafia protection. That money we paid,   in full & on time ... every month

*or whichever patronymic he's using this week