Vessenski says he and those journalists had to decide when and whether to expose Barbie, who was in cognito under the name Klaus Altman, to the international press.

"We had to decide who this guy was," Vessenski says. "Then, we agreed he was Barbie. We got photos."

The film on Barbie is of a "political detective" genre, Vessenski says, but with a more realistic approach.

"It is not like American detective films, where there is a lot of shooting and killing," he says. "Your public is used to that. Our public is accustomed to less energetic films but more intellectual films."

"If a karate man hit your head with his foot, you would not get up," he says. "In your films, he would get up. We tried to avoid that."

Vessenski says his primary goal while in the U.S. is to study American management systems, something he says he admires tremendously and wants to write about when he returns to the Soviet Union after the end of this academic year. To achieve that aim, last semester Vessenski took courses at the Business School and the Law School.

Currently, Vessenski says, he is studying drama with Lowell Professor of the Humanities William Alfred. In addition, Vessenski says, he has devoted much of his time to writing, and has written fiction in English for the first time. And he says he is thoroughly enjoying himself.

"I treat this year as...just a miracle. People always use the word happy," Vessenski says. "I am not happy. I'm astonished."