 Turns out, he'd be part of the team building the new British embassy in Moscow. What Nick knew about Russia at that point could fit on the back of a cigarette packet. It was 1998. The Soviet Union had collapsed less than a decade ago, and the country was starting to open up. But distrust between it and Western powers lingered. Nick and his co-workers were told to be extra careful that they could be targeted by the FSB, Russia's security agency.