"No one on earth knows what will happen next year," Erofeyev concludes, referring to the Russian presidential race. "Even Putin doesn't know. But there are possibilities for better, not only for worse."

... "It's like always in Russia," he says in halting English. "You are like a monarch. No changes."

... "Time will tell us what will happen," he advises. "My old mother used to say we need three generations, because we lost three generations."