Since then, most of his friends from the Caribbean have left, Cox is no longer studying Marxism and says he feels increasingly threatened by racism. Soon, after defending his doctoral thesis on international law in December, Cox, too, will be gone, leaving behind a son and a lofty reputation among foreign students.
"I can't take any more. I am tired. I am truly tired," said Cox, 33, who speaks softly with a West Indian lilt. "Enough snow and things like that."
After nearly a decade of studying international law and living in dormitories at the Russian People's Friendship University, formerly known as Patrice Lumumba University, in southwest Moscow, Cox plans to leave in February for the West Indies, where he hopes to find work as a law professor at the University of the West Indies in Barbados.
When Cox first left the Caribbean after receiving a full merit scholarship to study in Moscow, his family was skeptical. "Everybody was against it. They thought I would turn into a Communist," he said with a smile.
Indeed, his years of study before the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union were steeped in Marxist ideology.
"Marxism was an integral part of Soviet education. One had to study scientific communism and the political economy of the Soviet Union," said Cox, who expressed his gratitude to the Soviet and now Russian governments for his entirely free education. "I don't think I will ever believe in it because I believe in God." In recent years, Cox said much has changed at the university: the emphasis on Marxism has receded and the number of foreigners has declined from about 65 percent of the student body to the current 20 percent as scholarship money dried up.
For those who remain, particularly for students from the Caribbean and Africa, Cox's modest dorm room with piles of books everywhere is a place for academic help, advice on coping with Russia and even the occasional imported beer. As one of the longest enrolled foreign students, Cox is known as "Coxie" or "The Don", in reference to his godfather-like role in the dorm as an adviser and arbitrator.
The African and Caribbean student communities at the Friendship University are particularly tightknit because of the hostility black students feel from their host country.
"There is no such thing as a Russian friend in the real sense. They find it difficult to mix and their approach is crude," said Cox, who speaks Russian fluently. "Day in and day out, they call us names like African monkeys, negroes."
Still, after nine years in Moscow, Cox does have Russian friends. He has a two-year old son, Richard Byron Cox Jr. When Cox departs for the Caribbean, his son will be his strongest link to Russia.
"He's all I got. He's who I live for," Cox said. "But his mother, she's Russian and was brought up here. I don't think she could live there ... But I know that he will be there sooner or later. It is just a matter of time."
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