Hello and welcome to another episode of No Such Thing as a Fish, a weekly podcast this

week coming to live from Auckland!

My name is Dan Schreiber and I am sitting here with Anna Chazinski, Andrew Hunter Murray

and James Harkin and once again we have gathered around the microphones with our four favourite

facts from the last seven days and in no particular order here we go. Starting with you, Chazinski.

My fact is that in 2004 Moscow's politicians were told to stop kissing each other because

it took up valuable time that could be spent having more meetings. I was really going to

one laugh before the end of the fact. You're going to love this evening if you're...

Yeah this is true. I think it was first reported in the British press in the Telegraph.

2004, basically Moscow politicians were kind of sick of being mocked by the media for the big

Soviet era style bear hug they would do in the three kisses, very enthusiastic kisses, the

kissing ceremony they would call it. So a word was passed down through local government circles

that they had to stop kissing each other because it was time-wasting. It just took up so much time

if you walked into a meeting with 20 other politicians in there, everyone had to do three

ostentatious kisses and a massive bear hug to each other and by that point the meeting was adjourned.

So it's a band officially from the meeting? It was people were told within regional

government that they shouldn't be doing it. But there is, I didn't know this, a thing called

the Socialist for Eternal Kiss which is a secret kiss that you can only give or receive if you're

a communist leader. Wow. So it's not many of them left, is there? No. Kissing club is getting

smaller and smaller every year. So as you said, I know there's three kisses on alternate

cheeks or if you're really close on the lips and there's also the Socialist for Eternal Embrace

which is three deep hugs without kissing. Three hugs. You hug and then you push away and then

...