The Times Of India today carried a photo of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin kicking off his election campaign revving up his three wheeled Harley Davidson at the head of a biker’s motorcade in Novorossiysk.
I could not help go back down memory lane to 1977 when I visited Moscow and Daugavpils in Latvia of the erstwhile USSR on military duty from India when the only visible overture of friendship between USA and the USSR was a token collaboration for the Apollo- Soyuz space flight and I remember buying a special packet of cigarette with the photo of the spacecraft sold during this historic event . Otherwise , business was as usual with both the CIA and KGB trying to outwit each other in Intelligence and Counter Intelligence activities .
The Gorbachev era brought down the Iron Curtain and everything which it concealed for ever. And today after about 25 years of that defying moment , we have a Russian PM driving the symbol of American Youth and pride – A Harley Davidson driving it while seeking re-election .
The world we live in has come along way from a game of political brinkmanship through cold war to the new reality of a borderless world connecting minds virtually across geography and cultures . Let us hope that humanity is the ultimate winner in this transition.