In the 1990s, my employer, GE Capital, bought banks and finance companies in Central and Eastern Europe like you change your underpants. This required a special set of PR skills - my remit - because inevitably half of a given nation knew we Capitalists were there to steal their beloved Crown Jewels, while the other half knew we were CIA operatives on some inchoate mission or other. This made for interesting news coverage in places like Prague, Sofia, Bucharest, Warsaw and such. On a personal level, one had to step carefully. Office and hotel phones and rooms were bugged, we were followed (clumsily as it happened) and if the dishy clerk at the front desk or cocktail waitress was flirty (and they often were), it was not what it seemed. Hungary was a case-in-point.
© 2024 John Oliver
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