Baku, Azerbaijan, 1997 – a rickety lift shaft. “I calculated that the journey was the equivalent of going up 60 floors of an apartment building without the comfort of passing each floor with an exit… After what seemed an eternity, the elevator chugged to a stop… We were stuck. My companions began to converse in Russian, obviously very concerned. I asked my bodyguard what was going on: ‘The one guy who can get the elevator working is standing beside you; he’s not supposed to travel in the elevator…’ We were in this steel tomb, with no mobile coverage to the…

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