The Russian minister who became a US truck driver

The former minister drove his big white truck north until he reached Michigan. The Great Lakes provided a welcome relief from the scorching Texas heat.

- Pjotr Sauer

After years navigating the byzantine corridors of provincial Russian power, Denis Sharonov now works as a truck driver, steering his way through the vast highways of the US.

"It is heavenly up here in Michigan. Texas was too hot," said Sharonov, a former agriculture minister of the Komi Republic in northern Russia, in an interview.

Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine has set off a historic exodus of his own people. But few career changes are as unusual as that made by Sharonov, who fled Russia in September 2022 after receiving his draft papers.

"A lot of people don't understand my choice. They mock me. They say I downshifted, from a regional minister to truck driver," Sharonov said. "But I don't see it that way at all. I am proud of what I do."