shulgin then created "merry christmas to the world", an east-west collaboration between shulgin and bbc worldwide. with music by shulgin and lyrics and production by richard niles, it expressed the ethos of glasnost. london studio musicians performed with members of the moscow symphony and the soviet folk orchestra. sung by valeria, the video was directed by ken russell who used it in his film "alice in russialand" (1998). shot in red square, the clip featured psychic uri geller. during a special communication, astronauts from the "star township" introduced valeria while in orbit around the earth. the clip became the grand finale of the new year program on the first national tv channel of the soviet union.