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Everywhere he goes, and in his occasional appearances on Moscow TV, Strauss talks up his idea of helping the Russians open a dozen or so small sausage shops to demonstrate the principle that if perishable items don't sell at their first price, the price must be progressively lowered so they will sell before they spoil. "I think we can help move prices down a bit," Strauss says, noting that most food stores today are still state owned. He has enlisted the support of Georgi Matyukhin, head of the central bank, is in touch with a potential supplier of Russian-made sausage and is trying to persuade Moscow's mayor, Gavril Popov, to lend his weight to the plan.
On other fronts, Strauss says he has persuaded Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, to come to Moscow this spring to advise the Russian government on how to establish a modern banking system. Strauss and his staff also organized an elaborate "investment tour" of Russia, complete with chartered Aeroflot planes, for 14 leading U.S. investment bankers. After a two-day meeting, presided over by Strauss in Moscow, the group split up and fanned out over the country. They are currently visiting such relatively remote spots as Perm and Yekaterinburg in the Urals, Rostov-on-Don in the North Caucasus and Saratov on the Volga.
Inside the embassy, Strauss seems quite popular. He has attempted to introduce a little democracy and normality into what has long been one of the foreign service's most uptight and insular postings. He frequently eats in the staff cafeteria, and at a recent meeting lectured the staff on the dangers of workaholism, urging them to try to spend more time with their families. Afterward a woman approached in tears to thank him. Old State Department ways die hard, however. For months Strauss tried to reverse the department's ban on hiring Russians for menial embassy tasks, but U.S. security officers insisted that for every two Russian workers there had to be one American "watcher." Says Strauss: "That didn't make any damn sense to me. And I didn't do it." Finally, the security people relented, and unskilled Russian workers are once again employed in the embassy -- without the minders.
Beyond the embassy's well-guarded walls, Strauss also receives largely favorable reviews from Russian officials and other diplomats, as well as from Moscow-based journalists. "He is a person who can distinguish important things from less important things," says former Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze. "There is an illness in many foreign services -- the people in them are only good at following instructions. But, having spoken with Ambassador Strauss, I am under the impression that he has no instructions at all -- and doesn't need any."