He is, in a very weird and awkward way. My favorite story is how he called home from a work trip (it was somewhen before the internet, late 90s/early 2000s) and just told me to put my mom on the phone because Gorbachev wants to say hi to her. I delivered the message, having no clue who that guy is but I guessed some former classmate, while my mom was losing it and totally froze on the phone. Turned out my dad randomly met Gorbachev at a restaurant, befriended him, got drunk with him (well, my dad doesn’t drink, but the other guy), and then he was so eager to call my mother that they picked up the phone of the restaurant/bar in Russia and called Germany via landline. Both yelled their souls out on the phone, I’m not sure they would have needed a landline to reach us.

Years later they passed each other at the airport, my dad thought of saying hi, but assumed he wouldn’t remember him. But Gorbachev turned around, yelled my dad’s name, and hugged him.

My dad is really not a social guy and has no friends but business trips bring out a weird ass impressive side of him.