Hi guys, Efes was asking about Stagg ,s meeting with Barry Jones. Well, I,m not entirely sure of the facts but I think it could,ve been me who introduced him! I, along with Trevor Thayre, was one of the first to go to Moscow, cant remember what year( but somebody will probably put me right!) I do know it was February time and BLOODY cold. On the way whilst parked up on the outskirts of Poznan we were joined by Boshin Pete off Kepstowe and seeing as he was a Russian regular we tagged on behind him. Well things went ok until we were making slow progress across The Steppes owing to the cops continually stopping us, then my truck froze up! We were somewhere close to Gagarin and it was so cold that Pete persuaded me to lock up and go with him to Moscow and organise help. This is how I know it was one of Promotors early Russian trips because the trucks were completely ill-prepared for freezing winter running, no in-line heaters for the diesel, no parafin night heaters etc.,etc. Anyway when we arrived in Moscow Pete introduced me to Barry and he then took me the next morning to Sovtrans depot and organised the recovery of my truck. I was staying on in Moscow for a couple of days then flying back to the UK because it had been decided that my truck would stay and be brought back by the site-rep whose name escapes me but he managed to screw the gearbox on his way home and they couldn,t get it repaired and had to sorce one from the uk I think and get it sent out. Anyway, the day before I was flying home Staggy arrived and obviously he was introduced to Barry as being my “saviour”! The night before Pete and I were “entertained” at Barry,s apartment in the old Olympic village along with some rather fit young ladies who we found out had travelled in from the country totally illegally owing to the movement restrictions in place but they were prepared to take the chance of getting caught just so they could meet and associate with some westerners! Barry knew all these girls and it could be that they were the same girls that featured later in the blackmail scandal. I knew nothing about that until reading the previous posts on here because I made it very clear that I wasn,t going back again, ever! I found Barry an amazing character and learnt an awful lot about how to bend the rules and survive in Russia! I also met Pete,s local girlfriend who he called"low-loader Svet" on account of her rather ample chest. Now bordering on too much info so thats it folks !!