I always despised and considered complete idiots the kind of people who can miss a train or a plane. I mean, sure, you can miss a connecting flight, or there can be some kind of force majeure, but to just sit at home, get absorbed in watching TV, and miss it... There’s a first time for everything in life. Today was the first time I almost missed one. Or rather, I did miss it: the 6:50 p.m. train, for some reason, stayed at the platform until 6:58 p.m. For the first time in my life, I ran up an escalator. Not much fun, especially considering this was Komsomolskaya station in rush hour. But that’s not why I’m in the "disabled compartment." It’s because I bought my ticket online, wrote down the number, and was supposed to print out the ticket form at the station. Naturally, I didn’t have time to do that—I was literally jumping onto the last car while it was already moving. Once I caught my breath, I lied and said the ticket was with a friend in an SV compartment (first-class sleeper). But the carriage attendant wasn’t stupid and came with me. So when we got to the SV car, my story seemed thoroughly unconvincing, and I was taken to the train chief. The train chief found my story unconvincing too. My appeals to "call someone and confirm that a ticket in the SV car had been bought under the name Navalny for such-and-such number" were categorically rejected. I think my shaved head (see previous post) had catastrophically lowered the level of trust people were willing to place in me. In the end, the train chief’s verdict was: put him in the "disabled compartment," and in Vladimir he can either buy a ticket or get off. The "disabled compartment" turned out to be a huge compartment with one bed in the staff car. Comfortable enough, though it smells like medicine. At first everyone was giving me contemptuous looks: pathetic fare-dodger. But then I pulled out my laptop, and suddenly people started treating me with respect. They even offered me tea right away. That’s how it goes.