From pillar to post

Michael Palin, of the Monty Python parrot skit fame (remember “he’s probably pining for the fjords”?), went on another of his global tours in 1991, which was broadcast as the BBC travel documentary from Pole to Pole in 1992. Heading south from the North pole (well, whichever way you go from the North pole, you are headed south) along longitude 30 degrees east, he visited the Soviet Union shortly before it all came crumbling down. There are lots of theories about why it collapsed. I am only guessing that there must be since I have not read much in that area. However, that does not stop me from advancing my own theory. Wild conjecture it is not, however. It has to do with something that was illustrated in an encounter that Michael had in Moscow.
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