In the years gone by since the shootdown, the vicissitudes of Soviet and Russian Federation political systems have left their mark on the lives of the Soviet participants—some as expected, and some with startling surprise!
[[File:Su-15 Flagon.jpg|200px|thunbnail|right|Sukhoi Su-15 interceptor]]
'''Major Gennadie Osipovich''', the pilot of the [[Sukhoi Su-15]] interceptor which shot down KAL 007, retired and still a confirmed Communist, lives on a small farm in the Caucasus and raises strawberries. He receives a small pension equivalent to $150 a month, and occasionally speaks in front of local groups about the shootdown. He says of himself, “I am a lucky man!”