Anna Fedonkina

Having inviolable principles is a terrible mistake people make. The world we live in demands us to be flexible. Although, unfortunately, I myself do have a few that I’m trying hard to get rid of. Say, I find it extremely difficult to put up with lies. But what seems atrocious to me might feel perfectly fine to somebody else.

I used to dream of becoming a fitness coach, but the injury became a bit of a problem. I’ve been doing sports on a regular basis for 15 years already; it’s become an indispensable part of my lifestyle, a hobby, and a way of developing new interests.

I’m crazy about bags, I can spend the last of my money on a new item (therefore I have to forcibly limit my budget, and here’s when my indecisiveness comes in handy: I spend so long standing there thinking whether I should buy the thing or not, that eventually the time comes for me to rush somewhere, and the purchase falls through). Because of my work, I often go to Italy, where every now and again I suffer brain eclipses, especially during the sales season. Bags are my everything!

I always carry a survival kit on me. It contains all the everyday essentials. I regularly help someone out.

Never judge anyone, they are to be held responsible for their actions, they are the way they are. Nobody’s perfect, so all that’s left to you is either accept the person, or just eliminate him from your life.

I find it crucial to always be fit and feel great. That requires a strict schedule of trainings-meals-activities that you force yourself to follow till you learn to listen to your body. Afterwards it simply feels wrong to live without it. Many friends of mine envy me in a benign way, because they can’t make themselves keep to such a “military-tough schedule”.

I with my business partners was the first to start a concierge agency targeted exclusively at offering premium-class intermediary services for Thailand. It was an unusual project that dealt with such spheres as tourism, business, and real estate, involved engagement with the royal family, and served to fulfil the purposes that were absolutely unique. Before, Thailand the way Russians saw it used to be merely a country that offered cheap tourism, whereas what we did through this project was creating a radically different image. And back then we managed to succeed.

Italy isn’t just the love of my life, it’s my whole life! It’s the way it makes me feel why I believe it to be my country, the country where I feel at home. I breathe its air, I can sense it with every particle of my brain that this place belongs to me. If it wasn’t for this love, it would be completely impossible to do business here, because Italians are a terribly scatterbrained nation (laughs).

Italy is an absolutely unfathomable country from the point of view of its cultural heritage: according to UNESCO, about three quarters of world relics are situated there. Any rickety windmill you come across turns out to be a cultural site! But what left the most astounding impression on me was the city called Tarquinia: while you’re wandering along the streets, you can feel the ghosts of it following you. I mean it, that’s definitely not the place where you feel like staying outside after sunset.

Italian mafia is something you’ll never come across in real life, only in cartoons. Actually, what everybody refers to as mafia, Italians call family.

My unachievable dream is having blue eyes. Lenses aren’t the same, you can spot it straight away. Blue eyes look gorgeous with dark hair, but it’s impossible to change your cornea.

Going against conscience is utterly stupid simply because I’d beat myself up too much after that!

Russia is a free democratic state,but nobody really gives a damn about it. All our problems come from inability to express our opinion, our aspirations to the state. People are too used to having the rulers make decisions for them.