Sometimes Cupid’s Arrow Goes Astray

Sveta Filichenko, tall, blond and attractive, discovered the perils of cross-cultural dating the hard way.

Last year, the 32-year-old Russian bank teller and her 8-year-old son headed off to Gillette, Wyo., to live with a man she’d only spent a week with in Moscow.

“When he was here, he said all the right things,” Filichenko said. “He was very attentive. He treated me in a very nice manner. He said he would love me and take care of me.”

The man, whom she identified only as Philip, owned a business and had a big house and nice car. But in Wyoming, she said, “I discovered he was a different man. He was very rough. He seemed uneducated. He never read. He didn’t like my son. He wanted only me.”

After two months, she left.

“I liked America. I didn’t like the man,” she said. “I will be more careful next time.”