MAIL ORDER BRIDES stories
The three days of mail order brides 'socials' are gruelling. From 2pm to 7pm, the men survey and chat up women. Two hundred different Russian women are invited each day. 'It's much harder than a lot of people thought it would be,' says Elliot, a 44-year-old engineer. 'You have to know yourself, know what you want and stick with it.' Onlookers find themselves glued to dozens of real-life soap operas. Each night, the men are scheduled to set up a date. By 11pm, the dates are over and the neon-lit hotel lobby is again the realm of mafia in dark glasses and slinky prostitutes. Meanwhile, the bar is full of Americans. It's time for a beer with a chaser of male bonding.
Mail order brides from all over Russia
Kevin is in his late fifties and comes from Iowa. He, like all the men, has come to Moscow with a set of criteria for meeting mail order brides. Every woman he brings to his table is asked three questions. 'I ask them if they smoke, if they like animals and what they think of Adolf Hitler,' he says. We stare. 'That last one is very important. I want to make sure they know history.' One much-discussed topic is whether Russians and Americans - as citizens of superpowers - share personality traits. Another favoured subject is greed, Russian-style. One man is making a career out of telling a story - I suspect an urban myth - about a Russian mail order brides who pretended to fall in love with an American. He brought her to America and showered her with gifts, including a Porsche. She left him, crashed the car and landed him with huge legal bills. The storyteller confides that he is so fearful of gold-diggers he has decided not to show anyone the photographs of his Porsche. It's my turn to stare: what do these men think their attraction is?
Find out about mail order brides
