We are accused of all sorts of terrible things, of us wanting to undermine your market, of dumping and so forth. There was no such talk before, but when you had your recession, there were people who wanted to put the whole blame on the Russians. All these fables of us being such terrible devils are not well founded. We want to trade in earnest and well.

Anastas Hovhannesi Mikoyan (25 November 1895 {O.S. 13 November} – 21 October 1978) was an Armenian Old Bolshevik and Soviet statesman during the Stalin and Khrushchev years. During Stalin's reign, he was awarded with several high governmental posts including Minister of Trade. After the dictator's death, he backed Nikita Khrushchev and his de-stalinization policy. Mikoyan's influence was retained under Brezhnev as he was appointed Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 1964 until his retirement in 1965. During his tenure under Khrushchev, he was considered the second most powerful man in the Soviet Union. Mikoyan died on October 21, 1978, at the age of 82 from natural causes and was buried at Novodevichy Cemetery in Russia. Mikoyan received a total of six commendations of the Order of Lenin. His brother, Artem Ivanovich Mikoyan, was the co-founder and one of the primary designers of the Soviet MiG military aircraft.