American Tech Giants Extensions of the Neocon Agenda

Over the past 60 years, there is no facet of the US government or society that the Neocon-Neolib machine has not penetrated and that of course includes the biggest agents of technology, the IT giants. Their massive potential for influence have been put to work in the failed dream of  "controlled" chaos.
One must be overseas, in a target nation for this "controlled" chaos to truly appreciate how pervasive these extensions of the State Department are.

Several examples: the Ukrainian nazi pusche of 2013 sponsored by America and the EU that resulted in an attempted genocide of the Russian 45% of the population, a genocide that continues with full American and EU sponsorship to this day. Where the nazis lost on the battlefield, though they continue shelling civilians on a daily basis, they have made up by Hitlerite tactics of forced religious and linguistical conversions and police state terror tactics.

Of course one would never know this, as the Western media only praises its this brown plague and quiets over those uncomfortable issues such as mass arrests by the SBU of bloggers or just average citizens voicing critiques of the government. And since its Russians being murdered the West could not care less.

Those who try to push the truth through on Western platforms are banned or blocked by the army of Ukrainian moderators FaceBook has hired.

Now its Belarus, with the hypocritical West savagely suppressing its own protesting population and waxing in grief about the very light police tactics of Lukashenko. Their latest martyr hero who died in the protests, died when his own bomb blew up prematurely. This dead terrorist brought out no less then every EU ambassador, paying him tribute. This insanity has gone so far that even  Gas Gas Gas Them Macron, who for 2 years has set records in the use of CS gas on one's own populace, utilizing absolute third world tyranny against his own French population (not the illegal immigrant arabs or africans he uses to replace his French population) talks about the people's right to demonstrate in Belarus, you know the bottom of morality pit has been reached.

Youtube, one of those platforms that has decided to become an insidious organ of planned chaos, constantly places videos in support of the demonstrations on every Russian's and Belarus' suggestions list. You can not block them. Many are out and out falsehoods, but that does not bother Youtube that instantly blocks conservative sites and channels.

When demonstrations started in Russia in 2014, Facebook for its part tried to mobilize the public using any pretext to get people into the streets: fight for abortions, fight against abortion, against Putin, for the Church and so on. These commercials were placed in most Russians' news streams. All adverted the same date, time and location in hopes of getting as many people out and creating as much havoc. 

During the last parliamentary Russian elections, in the 24 hours of silence before the elections, when all political ads are banned, Facebook continued to flood the timelines with ads for the most radical members of the opposition.

Facebook, agent provocateur.

The Russian government, along with any other government so affected must fight this direct and illegal threat to their sovereignty by a set of elites unanswerable to anyone, to include the laws of their home country of America.

The way to fight these American neocon-neolib hegemons, of course is not banning them. This, firstly, turns them into victims and  hands them the moral high ground, secondly that approach with today's technology is pointless. They must be fought on their home turfs in the best of American traditions^ sued by the victims of their propaganda in single and class action lawsuits. The affected governments, with their deep pockets can easily hire legions of American lawyers to take these tech giants to court, endless court with the aim not necessarily to win but to punish with loss of capital and stock price until the illegal behaviors become to expensive to continue. There are millions of victims of the extremists that these tech giants support directly. In Ukraine, over 8 million people have suffered alone and throughout the world, those numbers are many times larger. No matter the size of the pockets of any one tech giant, they are no contest for the pockets of any medium sized state.

 The same strategy should be utilized by the various conservative groups in America, who have been harmed greatly by the immoral actions of these elitist organizations.

A Wind of Change

 Much can depend in a nation's life on the personality and beliefs of its leader. Even more, often enough, on those of the men surrounding him. To this, Russia is no exception.

President Putin has always stood by the re-industrialization of the economy and the advancement of the real economy vs the financial economy. However, this always met with limited success and seemed to only make advancements more in a reactionary manner to key anti-Russian world events. Import substitution, raised due to western economic war on Russia, is a prime example of this. While successful, its success has been much more limited then by any account it should have been. It is as if the ship of state was constantly being met with a ponderous head wind, breaking its progress. Agriculture and military have been the exceptions.

Indeed, that head wind was the number two man in Russia. An avowed Atlantist and part of the globalist financial elite, Dmitry Medvedev, as prime minister, was never exactly pro Russian development or mercantilism (there it is that evil word Mercantilism, so hated by the neoliberal free trade crowd). It can be understood of course as 1. Financial economics by its nature is an extraction economy, its quick cash through liquidation of industry and sell off of resources. When backed up by people who see themselves as citizens of the globe or global elites and hold no particular driving and all consuming love for their homeland, their Rodina, this is a formula for disaster.

Since the removal of Medvedev from power and with him the Atlantist neoliberal block and their replacement with Prime Minister Mishustin, the winds of change have arrived.

This was first seen by the Russian advantageous positioning to support the economy during and after the Covid19 lock-downs. I detail these HERE. In tendum, the Russian government gave assistance to the Russian medical supply and biotechnology industry to allow Russia to become an over night medical equipment heavy weight, bringing forth top of the line technologies (detailed HERE) and to be the first to start mass production of the first registered Covid19 vaccine (detailed HERE). Already nations have lined up to purchase and franchise the production of equipment and vaccine. Russia has also shown an ability all over her vast distances to greenfield to completion almost two dozen hi-tech medical hospitals, projects completed in under 100 days each and not temporary trailers like the Chinese "wanders" but permanent building with all the hi-tech equipment (also Russian made) that would be expected from world class facilities.

"The president gave marching orders for the government to work out a package of programs for the growth of the Russian IT industry, to create maximum comfortable conditions for specialists of this industry. Now we are reviewing the changes that will be required in the legal codes to create tax havens for the IT sphere."

Prime Minister Michael Mishustin

One such maneuver is the lowering of pension taxes required from the IT industry from 15% down to 7.6%, almost a 50% cut. Taxes on profits will drop from Russia's already low 20% to 3% for companies who earn 90% of their profits from production and sale of software solutions.

Additionally, manufacturers of electronic equipment and AI systems will also be covered under these new taxes.

No major economy in the world has such beneficial tax codes for the IT industry. Coupled with the fact that Russia produces more engineers than any other nation, an excellent communications infrastructure that is now being upgraded to 5G, its comparatively lower salaries compared to other nations and very cheap utilities and land costs and there is no logical reason not to invest, except for fear bred by ignorance and foreign propaganda. Taking into account the weak position of the ruble vs foreign major currencies, for those selling abroad and ignoring this , it is just down criminal incompetence.

The Russian government has also undertaken a gigantic effort in reviewing, updating and deleting antiquated government standards throughout all industries. This has helped catapult Russia into one of the world leaders of the Ease of Doing Business index in 6 short years. What, the Western MSM forgot to mention that?

The COVID Vaccine You Never Heard Of

The Western press, as mouth pieces for the powers that be, fo everything to maintain a bubble of silence around most any topic that does not fit their owners' aims. This of course extends to COVID, one of the most politicized themes ever.

As such, it is no surprise that Russia, whose image the US maintains of a backwater poverty stricken black hole of evil, is never mentioned in the development of medical practices or for that matter COVID vaccines. One will of course hear all about US, UK French and German efforts and even occasionally about the efforts of the new black hole of evil, China, but never about Russia.

So a country that has one of the lowest death rates from COVID, it should be no surprise that Russia is the leader in COVID vaccine research and soon production. The low death rates are in part from treating patients with direct blood oxygenation and helium to breakup the clots, instead of just putting a patient on a ventilator till either his lungs blow out or secondary infection takes him. My own aunt who is 76 and was down to 30% lung capacity was put back on her feet in 2 weeks.

It will come as a shock to most people who exist in the Western information bubble that Russia has 17 different vaccines in research and that one of them is completing its final trials: second wave of human trials, with a 100% success rate of creating immunity in the volunteers. Worst case symptoms have been medium flu symptoms and low fevers.

Best of all, specifically anti COVID immune cells have been identified with full immunity developed in all patients.

The Sechenov University team has completed its work and are being fast tracked for mass production, with the aim of producing 30 million vaccines before the end of the year. Keep in mind that on average, studies are finding that over 20% of the population already has naturally established immunity, mostly from asymptomatic infections. The additional vaccines, representing another 25% of the population will bring the total to nearly 50%, even more so as more people will continue to gain immunity naturally. By year's end, Russia will have full herd immunity in the works. August will see the first mass production of a fully tested COVID specific vaccine from a country the US elites have called a gas station that produces nothing.




Is it any wander than that last week the US, UK and Canada simultaneously blamed mythical Russian hackers for sabotaging their vaccine programs. One has to save face some how. Sanctions to follow.

Vaccinations are totally voluntary, as forced vaccinations have been ruled unconstitutional, in Russia.

The Top 18 Other Constitutional Amendments to the Russian Constitution

The referendum is over and 78% of the Russian voters gave their support for the constitutional amendmentS. You may have noticed I capitalized the "S", which was for most of my western readers who from reading their national."journalism" may be found lacking in knowledge that there were other amendments but the "Putin is now King" amendment that the Western mouth pieces are all yelling about. As a matter of fact, even many opponents of President Putin staying on came and voted for the changes, all for one reason: to give Russia the tools it needs to break the last chains of Western post Soviet colonialism.

To that one point, what the mentioned amendment does is zero out the number of served terms previously for Putin, Medvedev and Yeltsin (ok, little chance he will run again) to run for 2 more consecutive terms. So this is no guarantee of being in office, but most western media seemed to miss that point.

What is more important, especially to "woke" western liberalism are the other changes.Russia is a conservative Christian nation state, more akin to what the West was in the 1950s and 1960s then to the woke, extreme liberal mayhem and politically correct oppression that it has become.

The amendments to the constitution were presented to voters as a major blow to the colonial constitution written by US State Department "advisors" aka handlers of Boris Yeltsin and given to him to pass right after he had 550 people killed in the Russian White House (parliament) revolt, in 1993.

What most westerners are not aware of is that Russia was always viewed as an enemy by the Western elite and they were quite vocal about pointing this fact out, even though at this point in the 90s Yeltsin had dismembered (with the help of Gorbachev) the Soviet State, murdered the Russian army, and gave and signed anything demanded from him by his Western handlers.


Just a few examples:

Russians have no one to blame but themselves for the brutal dictatorship they built in their own country and imposed on their neighbors. (Chrystia Freeland, Financial Times, 29 May 1996)

NATO has proved itself to be peaceful and the West's CFE commitments add to that assurance. But as Russia recovers and rearms, as history suggests it will, Moscow's imperialist urge might well rise again. Then it will be too late and 'provocative' to redraw the defense line. (William Safire, International Herald Tribune, 3 Oct 1995)

There is an expansionist mentality among Russia's ruling elite, deeply rooted in the country's past, which makes it difficult for them to consider forming a partnership with the West. This almost permanent urge for territorial expansion has at the same time become a scourge for the Russian people who continue to live in appalling poverty in a country rich in resources. (Jan Nowak "What NATO can do for Russia", Washington Times, 19 April 2000)

So what were the main other amendments?

1. Only the federal government can set up governmental structures in the territories of Russia.

2. The territory of the Russian Federation can not be divide, partitioned or annexed to or by anyone else and any actions committed in that vein will be considered treason.

Yes, under the colonial constitution RF had nothing in it about maintaining territorial integrity or about treason on these grounds being..welp treason.

3. RF is the lawful inheritor of the former Soviet Union. This includes all treaties and treaty organizations.

4. The RF has a unified 1000 year history. It has a culture and belief in God passed on to us from our ancestors as well as government traditions.

5. Civil servants and elected politicians are now officially banned from having bank accounts outside of Russia and from holding a second citizenship or permanent residency. As unbelievable as this may sound, some two dozen members of the Russian Duma (parliament) are also citizens of other nations, primarily US, UK and Israel. As a matter of fact, the leaders of various progressive bills to strip parental rights and pro LGBT groups are US citizens. Go figure.

6. The Constitution now enforces that the country's minimum wage can not be lower than the minimum cash required for life above the base poverty line.

7. The RF remembers those who defended the Motherland and will defend the historic teuth from changes.

8. The well being of children is top priority of the government, which will provide the optimal conditions for development of spiritual, just, emotional, physical and intellectual development. The development of patriotism, citizenship and respect for elders. The government prioritizes family based education but takes upon itself responsibility for orphaned children.

9. Government language is Russian. Russian is the main language among thr many equal nationalities of the RF.

10. Provinces have a right to set their own local language which will be used in parallel with Russian.

11. RF guarantees to all its nationalities the right to their own language, creating conditions for its study and conservation.

12. Culture in the RF is a unique blend of all its component nationalities and is upheld and defended by the government.

13. The government guarantees the defense of the rights of Russian ethnic minorities located outside of RF.

14. The only official currency of Russia is the ruble. The currency is controlled by the Central Bank.

15. Government guarantees its obligations to pay pensions and to index those pensions yearly.

16. No international laws or treaties can supersede Russian federal laws.

17. President is the guarantee of the Constitution and the freedom and rights of the citizens.

18. Candidates for presidency can not be younger than 35 and must have lived the past 25 years in RF. He can not have duel citizenship or residency or foreign accounts.

There are of course many more minor amendments that will be discussed later and there impacts.

Another Blow to US Business Prospects in Russia

Today the news hit the papers that a group of US Congressmen, led by Eliot L. Engel, have put together a new bill of sanctions upon Russia for the alleged violations of human rights.

“Vladimir Putin is a cruel authoritarian with a long track record of silencing civil liberties, including freedom of the press, freedom of speech, political opposition, and democracy. We need only to look at the violent killing of Putin-critic Boris Nemtsov to see how Putin brutally suppresses those who speak out against him,” Engel said.

As I have written in the past, Russian freedom of the press is in quite good health, better health, one might say then the US corporate clone media. As for political freedom, Russia has 5 parties in parliament and over 700 registered parties in the country, many times more than the US or any of the other Western countries who have declared themselves the arbiters of democracy. Additionally, as to Boris Nemtsov, a man who by the time of his death, was a long gone political has been and could not have garnered 3% of the vote in the previous elections, having him gunned down across from the Kremlin, in broad day light only made sense in an Austin Powers movie or for a foreign power in need of a new martyr for a fake narrative.

So let us take stock of this situation. In the middle of a COVID exasperated but long foretold economic collapse, with spiraling systematic mass unemployment and mass bankruptcies of major retail corporations, meat rationing due to the closure of meat plants and the destruction of herds by bankrupt farmers, and a run away Fed that has now decided to print without end, the US has decided to up the anti.

Not satisfied with its endless wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and illegal intervention in Syria replete with the mass theft of Syrian oil, it finds itself on the brink of war with Iran and Venezuela, with new tensions with Cuba, with bad blood with its European vassals after out and out piracy of German, French, Italian and Canadian (ok they are not European) medical supplies. The US has launched in effect a war of words, accusations and again trade with China, a war threatening to turn hot. It has extremely tense relations with Turkey, has attempted to strong arm Saudi Arabia, the very nation because of whom the US dollar is the world's reserve currency. Even India has started to again distance itself after America's ham fisted attempts at putting pressure on that nation.

So in the midst of a total collapse in world credibility and partnership, the insanity that is the modern US government, to include both parties of the Congress, has decided to reignite the pressure and standoff with Russia, by creating yet more sanctions.

Russia has had waves of sanctions launched against it in the past 7 years. First for the democratic choice of Crimeans to leave the Ukraine after a western sponsored nazi coup, then for Ukraine's genocidal war against the Donbass that has thankfully failed, followed by the fictitious 2016 Russian election tampering, the comedy show of the supposed Skripel poisonings and for Rosneft continuing business dealings with the legitimate Venezuelan government, instead of confiscating and pocketing billions of Venezuela's oil revenues, like some others. I am sure I have missed a few more.

To this end, President Putin will now face ever stronger domestic pressure to respond in kind and further more so since Russia sent a plane of medical aid to the US and was already rewarded by howlers of Russophobia in the US media. Russian public opinion was very angry about any Russian sent help to the US which is seen by many as an aggressor. To that end, to put his hand out, President Putin took a hit to his own popularity. That this has now been repaid first by the western MSM screaming about cynical political ploys and now with additional sanctions, President Putin's position can not help but harden. Additionally the Medvedev Atlantist neo-liberal block has effectively been removed from power and those still remaining in positions, neutered.

So what does this mean for US business: more of the same as it has for the past 7 years. US business has lost market space, has lost revenue and opportunities. Not only has US business lost large chunks to European and Asian competitors, Russia through aggressive import substitution has created manufacturers who first filled Russia's own needs and are now starting to come onto the world market as competitors to those same American corporations.

Just a few examples: Exxon was forced out by Obama from the northern Russian marine oil fields. Rosneft brought Exxon in because Exxon already had the technology it needed. With Exxon gone, Rosneft was forced to invest its own funds into developing those same technologies and once developed, it is now free with its own patents to compete and to compete at a lower production margin. Exxon itself, in just one trillion dollar light sweet crude field, a field in a sea of many such fields, lost $100 billion over a 10 year period and the US taxpayers equally lost $10 billion in taxes.

The various large scale Russian infrastructure projects, such as the Amyrsk LNG plant, the World Cup football stadiums, the expansion of various Russian oil refineries over the past 5 years and so on have also seen strict banning of any US based vendors. When asked America's political instability towards Russia is the given reason.

Even world credit card markets now have the Mir card as a new competitor. True, still in the early stages on the world stage, it has taken over a large chun

In a post Corona and more precisely mid Greater Depression era, these major projects will be some of the few still left ongoing. The pressure on US business, with such huge closed markets, along with a loss of markets in China and a broken EU, will be enormous. What can readily be the very lifeline for millions of jobs is no more and can be no more in the face of the cowardliness of American business leaders to call out the insanity of Washington.

Such is the price of silence.

An Apology From a Czech Citizen To the Russian People

The following is a letter of apology that was sent to the Russian embassy in Czech for the actions of the mayor of Prague using the Covid-19 to tear down the memorial of General Konev.

VELVYSLANECTVÍ RUSKÉ FEDERACE V ČESKÉ REPUBLICE

nám. Pod Kaštany

160 00 Praha 6

Victory over fascism is the most important event for the Russians. And it’s not only for those who witnessed the war, but also for young people. Any damage, removal or other insult to these symbols, regardless of whether they are devoted, to the ordinary soldiers or commanders, the majority of Russians consider it as a personal insult.

The argument of Mr. Kolář for removal of the statue of Marshal Konev was that the statue in Prague 6 was repeatedly poured in red color as a reminder that Marshal Konev had blood on his hands as a suppressor of the nationwide uprising against the dictatorship in Hungary. For me only the fact that the Hungarians are at this time settled is also evidenced by the Soviet soldier’s memorial at Freedom Square in Budapest, which nobody spilled red. By the way, there is a statue of President Reagan on the same square. Maybe this could be an incentive for a thought for the Mayor of Prague 6.

What kind of person is Mr. Kolář, when he has to strengthen his ego by fighting with a long-dead person? What kind of primitive he is that have to tear down memorials for his personal visibility? Probably not a genuine person. He's a superficial hypocrite instead of helping his citizens in times of crisis, he decided to tear down historical monuments, while people sew masks at their homes and humbly tolerate quarantine, others abused the state of emergency for their own political actions because the mayor of Prague 6 Ondřej Kolář removed the statue of Konev in a situation of a ban on gathering, and he also dared to joke about it and said he did that because general Konev had no mask. How to describe such behavior? He is a poor man and a coward, someone who in order to win, leads a duel with the dead.

 

Only the ones who dont want to see, cannot unsee it. Only the ones who dont want to hear, cannot unhear it and only the ones who dont know, would never understand.

That is why he was able to dishonor the symbol of the thousands of Soviet soldiers who put their lives for ours. 26 million were killed before the evil was stopped. At least we can thank them and not forget.

Thanks for the sacrifice druzya.

I personally apologize here to the granddaughter of Marshal Konev Yelena Koneva and the Russian Federation at the same time and believe me, dear Russian friends, that Prague is not all of Czech Republic and Kolář is not everyone. I believe that such actions are political misery, it is totally unnecessary and counterproductive, and only cause unnecessary waves of hate.

“People are always shouting they want to create a better future. It's not true. The future is an apathetic void of no interest to anyone. The past is full of life, eager to irritate us, provoke and insult us, tempt us to destroy or repaint it. The only reason people want to be masters of the future is to change the past.”      ≈Milan Kundera ≈                                                                                                                                        

Kateřina Roszková

 

Sincerely K.R. - citizen of Czech Republic

 

Every Catastrophe Offers Opportunity

In true form, when ever one door closes another door opens.

With Covid-19 ravaging supply chains all over the world, medical supply chains have found themselves no exception. From the early days of the pandemic in China to the now global crisis, it quickly became evident that outsourcing the majority of your medical materials and equipment manufacturing, including ingredients for medication, to one country, is hardly a good idea.

Long before Covid-19 became a household name or was even thought up, various voices in Russia were urging the government to more fully invest in local manufacturing of at least medicines if not the equipment for hospitals. The government was slow to act, however the financial and economic war that the West declared on Russia in 2014 brought more attention and political will to this issue.

As President Putin made it his aim for the drastic improvement of the Russian medical system, especially outside of the top 5 major cities, it quickly became obvious that importing all the needed medical equipment would prove to be a very expensive endevour and one that was wrought with tensions as the US Congress played its favorite game of Tariff Russia. Thus, investments were already being realized in the medical fields for manufacturing of state of the art medical equipment for various purposes in Russia: from x-ray to artificial/assisted breathing machines.

Along comes Covid-19 and world wide everything unravels. Luckily for Russia, or a God send, you decide, the plague hit Russia almost last and has only in the past 2 weeks started to rev up. This gave Russia an additional two months to ramp up manufacturing in many sectors and to start to move fringe developments and technologies into full on exploitation. There is nothing like a war time footing to move technology along at rates otherwise not imagined. Survival is the real mother of innovation.

And so, Russia now stands on the precipice of coming out of this as a power of modern medical manufacturing. Below we will go over only a few of the new or expanding productions. As more information appears I will of course update this post.

This can be equally seen in the 16 new infectious disease hospitals being built across the country. These, unlike the Chinese container temporary Wuhan facility, are permanent state of the art facilities with 41 days start to turn key completion build cycles. Each of the hospitals are set up for 500-1000 beds and all the equipment has been procured from Russian companies. From top of the line adjustable beds, to surgical equipment, monitoring systems and stations, ambulances and assisted breathing machines. All are being delivered now and this is only possible because they are localized production, not imports from China or Europe.

So, we will start with the big heavy weight of the Covid-19 season: artificial/assisted breathing machines.

At present, Russia has some 44.000 units of various age and capacity in service, Japan 23.000. As a further comparison, Krasondar, the main southern commercial center with a population of about one million people has 950 such units in service. Milano, the main Italian industrial center with a population of 1.3 million coupled with horrid air quality, had 48 units.

As of March, Russia was producing some 300 state of the art units per month. With massive government support, the production is being increased to 500 units this merry month of April, with the aim of 2500 units monthly by the close of May and peaking at 3.000 units. Of course this level of sustained production is well past the capacity needs for Russia itself, but it will go to fill export orders. As of now, 30 nations have either placed or in the process of placing orders for machines.

The units are being produced by Shabe Holdings, a division of Rostec, in their Uralskii Optical-Mechanical manufacturing plant.

Other key productions of masks and garments are also taking off. Small and medium sized businesses are retooling. Production of the high grade masks has reached 2.1 million units per week with another 300.000 coming online this week. Of course this does not fill the demand but considering previously Russia was importing all of this volume, this has gone a long way in manufacturing from basically nothing.

Two technopark universities in Ekaterinburg and Tymin have also begun printing plastic masks (they still require cloth for the breathing filters) on 3D printers, in serial production. While still at small batches of 500 units per 2 days of printing, the proof of concept in a production environment has been provided, opening the doors to mass production that does not require outsourcing and international logistics or major manufacturing facilities. Equally they are printing replaceable parts to assisted breathing equipment, such as plastic valves that must be changed once every 24 hours.

Medical garment manufacturing, robes for doctors, at 6.000 units daily. At present this is well below daily consumption and stocks are filling the gap. However, manufacturing is being ramped up to 25.000 units per day, as even heavy industry giants like Komaz and Tatneft are retooling for a new manufacturing branch job.

The big bottle neck is cloth for the medical gowns which is still mostly imported from China. In steps Chaikovskii Textile which has come up with a new medical material Panatseya PP180 which is a light weight, flexible material that is inhospitable to bacterial, fungal and viral microorganisms. The textile also is not absorbent, so liquids do not penetrate and cause stains. Full sustained production is in its early stages set to ramp up.

March goggle manufacturing was at 12.000 units per day with the aim of reaching 22.000 units per day by end of April.

Additionally, by end of March, respirators production had reached 20.000 units per day.

Of the seventeen key medications used in treatment of Covid-19, fourteen are manufactured in Russia, the remaining 3 are having to be imported. Unfortunately, this is a much slower ramp up issue, but one that has once again been high lightened as a weak link.

Russian pharma companies are also working on 7 separate vaccines, with live human trials on 60 volunteers (these people are already chosen and half are the scientists themselves) set to start by end of May/early June. Due to the long incubation periods of this virus, testing will take at least 1 month. Generiym, one of those companies, has patented and pushed into full scale production an express test for Covid-19 that delivers results in 30 minutes with a 94% accuracy rate. Yes, I know, the western media has not squeaked a word about this, which should not be in the least surprising.

Other high tech equipment is being manufactured by such companies as Litharinskii Optical Glass Plant, working with Germanium lenses to manufacture top of the line thermal imaging equipment that allows a doctor to scan a crowd up to 30m out and identify individuals in the crowd whose body temperatures are out of norms set.

Evromedservise is now manufacturing a full line of medical furniture with built in ultraviolet radiation lamps for quick and full sterilization of medical equipment and supplies.

Rosatom Helskia has produced large scale radiation sterilization equipment that will sterilize up to 58 million masks per month. Their work contract goes into effect this month.

To keep this engine of production and innovation chugging, the Russian central bank has relaxed all lending requirements to any company starting or currently manufacturing medicines, medical supplies and medical equipment.

Now we will see in what position Russia will be on the medical equipment markets once all of this settles out. Next time you are at your doctor's, the equipment might just read "Made in Russia".

The Truth About Media Censorship In Russia

At this point, most of you, having been conditioned by your own MSM for 70 years, and most intensely these past 7 year, are expecting me to tell you how it is all one sided and Putin all the time. I am sorry but you will be quit disappointed.

There is some truth to that assumption, on the government owned channels, where it is definitely very pro-government, not unlike the BBC, Deutschawella or PBS, not to mention dozens of other channels across the world, such as Al Jazeer, which would never dare criticize the conditions of labourers in Qatar or Qatar’s policy of supporting Islamic Jihadists through the Muslim Brotherhood, around the world and giving them safe haven. So, if you are looking at the Russian media market strictly from that point of view, you will be somewhat justified in your views.

Of course, if one actually understands Russian and watches the various debate programs, there are always opposing voices, usually from politicians or talking heads from other countries, many of them viraly Russophobic. Where on any single US "debate" or "discussion" on Russia would you ever hear a pro-Russian voice from no less a Russian? Forboddin.

However, when you notice that the government channels are far from the only game in town, it becomes quite clear that Russia has more media freedom and views than many of the nations in the West that constantly criticize Russia. Yes, for many of those reading this, this is a crisis concept, as everything blasting around you is telling the opposite. Stop for a moment and wander aloud, “Why is it, that such a “free” Western press is always saying the exact same thing, no matter what country it is in….as if on queue….hmmmm”.

Now, on to our story. I will break this down into two parts, first the Russian media and then the foreign media.

The native media:

Russia has more channels than any other country in the world, though the vast majority are local channels. This should be no surprise, as Russia is the biggest country and conditions and to some degree cultures vary from one end to the other. Russia itself is bigger than all of Latin America. On the national level, there are several independent channels, broadcasting their own news shows. True, most follow more or less the same line, that is, the majority opinion in part because they themselves share that opinion, because it sells commercials (and that is the point of most big news, to sell commercials), and in part because it grants easier access to the people in power, to again, get the story that attracts the viewers that sells commercials.

This is no different from why Sky News is uncannily similar to the BBC and why NBC, MSNBC, CNN and CBS are basically clones of each other, giving powderpuff interviews to government officials. Fox is only a little off the beaten track and even then, not too far, as any voice on Fox that questioned the American government’s actions to loudly has been quickly removed.

Sochi Olympics was a prime example: an American comedian, Jimmy Kimmel created the “wolf of Sochi” story, by having his crew film a trained wolf walking down a stage that looked like a corridor and planting it on the internet as a wolf walking down the halls of the athletes dorms in Sochi Russia. Western “intellectual” and “investigative” journalism was at its finest, all picking up the video and running with it right off of the cliff. That of course was Mr. Kimmel’s point that the Western media are blind and hypocritical and clones of each other.

Even on the government owned channels the political talk shows, that are aired daily, are anything but one sided. The hugely popular show on Russia 1, headed by Vladimir Solovev, an on and off Kremlin critic (get that, a Kremlin critic runs one of the most popular discussion TV and daily radio shows on a Kremlin owned channel…wow now that’s “censorship”) often covers Ukraine. Unlike the American “fair and balanced” Fox that has a procession of ever more extreme and unhinged personalities screaming for the murder of Russians, Solovev’s show, structured in opposing panels of 3-4 speakers on each side, often has Ukrainian government officials and members of Poroshenko’s own party, as well as members of the Novorossian government. This in truth, is about as close as the two sides ever get to speaking with each other.
 
And yes, the Ukrainians are often screaming degradations on their hosts and on Russia. On one such tirade, the opposing speaker pointed out that at least in Russia, when they leave the building and freely move around Moscow, they will not be beaten by Ukraine's Right Sector or other government goons or have their property confiscated as does the opposition in Ukraine. On another episode, when a young, military aged party member of formerly Poroshenko’s power party, was denigrating Russia, the counter speaker pointed out that if he hated Russia so much, why is it he now lives in Russia and hides out from the Ukrainian draft. Why he was not fighting. The young “intellectual” shut up.

However, there are also Russian channels that differ from the media. Never mind that many parties and the Church have their own channels, that put their slant on the news or their own stories out, there is also an out and out anti-Russian channel Dozd. This channel is viciously anti-Russian and such a channel would never be tolerated in America or Britain. Maybe the Germans, but I doubt even them. And surely no channel that constantly criticized the government and society and made both out to be subhuman, would be tolerated in such European beacons as Poland, Latvia, Estonia or God forbid, Ukraine (where no opposition media is allowed, and the last president owned his own personal propaganda channel).

Dozd has lost quite a bit of its viewership and commercial sponsors over the last 1.5 years, in part because of the wave of patriotism that has swept Russia and with it the pride in Russia that no longer views itself as the country bumpkin to the enlightened by the West but as a separate civilization with separate values that have little in common with the modern West. But Dozd’s troubles began much earlier when they openly questioned the defense of Leningrad (St.Petersburg) against the Nazis and the heroic sacrifice made by the population and army to keep the northern capital out of Hitler’s hands. They named it a stupid decision and that the city was better off being surrendered to the Germans and if Russia had lost everyone would be drinking German beer now. This had a rather negative reaction from society, to put it mildly.

Radio:

Now on to the radio media. In parallel to Dozd is the extremely popular, amongst the Russian Liberal class, Echo Moscow. It spews a similar anti-government, anti-Russian, anti-Russian cultural message, 24 hrs a day every day. Imagine a radio station heard across America that constantly broadcast that all Americans were hillbilly rednecks, ignorant and racist and should copy themselves on France if they wanted to think of themselves as even remotely human. Now you get the gist of the programming. Add in constant conspiracy theories and irrational screams of oppression and you get the daily dose of insanity.

More rational but still anti-government radio stations, also broadcast 24/7 across Russia such as Business News FM and Vedomosti. Again, these are not your American Fox brand of mildly slapping the government wrist.

As for other points of view, again, every major party (in all there are over 700 registered parties, most minor), and we have 4 major and dozens of minor parties and the Church as well as the minority Catholic Church (4% of the population) have their own stations. There are also hundreds of local stations, and no we do not have a monopolist like Clear Channel Radio that owns 80%+ of all the radio stations.

Published Media

At any newsstand, and there are hundreds, one can literally buy one of two dozen papers and several dozen magazines, many of which are owned and published by Western companies. Yes, we have National Geographics, Vogue, Maxium, Popular Mechanics and so on and so on.

All political parties and movements also have their own daily news papers, to include the viciously anti-government and anti-Russian papers such as Moscow Times, which is actually a Danish/Finish project. The Moscow Times is a platform for any and all anti-Russian neocon scribblings. Many of their articles are reprints from various US think tanks, Reuters and other platforms and their editorials are screeching grounds for some of the most vicious anti-Russian liberals.

Again, there are less extreme but just as anti-government papers and magazines to choose from.

Foreign Media:

No, Russia is not shut off from foreign media. As I mentioned earlier, the print media is rife with foreign owned magazines and journals. As a matter of fact, go to your local bookstore and chances are, anything you have on your selves, you can find the exact same issue in Russian on our shelves.

As for televisions, since most of the country is now on digital and satellite, there is a wide range to choose from. We have CNN, BBC, Sky News, Euronews (A Brussels based BBC Clone which is banned in Ukraine for daring to show both sides of the conflict), Al Jazeer, Deutschawella, Bloomberg, Press TV (Iranian) and on the east coast various South Korean, Chinese and Japanese news channels. We have more access to the news then most Europeans or Americans, none of it banned, all of it broad casting. On top of this we have an open internet, except for controls on child pornography.

So with all that, Russians make a much more informed choice what to believe and not to believe then the much more controlled information bubbles that are the media space in most of the West. Russians are well educated and exposed to everything around us.  We are some of the most traveled populations in the world and a large chunk of the population speaks multiple languages (most schools now require 2 foreign languages, the first begins in Kindergarten). Russia has the world’s highest percent of the population with advanced degrees, 7% more as a percentage of the population then the next competitor, Japan.

I would challenge the reader to actually contemplate what I have written and consider just for a moment who actually lives in a free media space and who in a controlled information bubble.

Russia Is Well Positioned UPDATE 4 (1 June 2020)

Despite the "best wishes" of the Western mass media that everything in Russia is failing, the reality of the situation is that Russia is uniquely positioned to rebound economically faster and stronger then the over leveraged West.

Even the NYT came to this conclusion "Thanks to Sanctions, Russia Is Cushioned From Virus’s Economic Shocks", true, you can taste the bile in the first half of the article, but then they get to the various points.

Russia has been cut off from the Western financial markets, Russia has been busy regrowing its industry for the past 7 years and Russia has a huge reserve of over $600 billion set aside for occurrences just like this with a government debt of less than 10% to GDP. But this is not enough, what Russia has, unlike the West, is a leadership that is ahead of the curve.

The Russian leadership has foreseen what is coming down the road and has taken key steps to block that road as best as possible. Russia instantly closed the borders with China, while infected people from China were still traveling everywhere. Russia closed commercial flights with the rest of the world more slowly and that did allow for the infection to leak in. Either way, for what ever reasons: Grace of God, cold weather, partial immunity from TB vaccines, the virus has been slow to spread and the rate of full recovery is 5 times to that of deaths, while globally right now its about 2 to 1, of the officially recognized infections.

The Russian government has stock piled medical equipment and has retooled very quickly to manufacture additional equipment and materials, enough so as to send aid to 14 other nations, including the US, as well as 15 plane loads of trucks and personnel to aid Italy, bringing lacking equipment, such as disinfectant machines, spreaders, and liquid as well as over 200 doctors and military biochem experts. Russia has disinfected over a twenty hospitals and homes for the old, as well as building field hospitals, throughout hard hit northern Italy.

Russia has over 44000 artificial/assisted breathing machines and two large manufacturers are working 24/7 manufacturing more. As a comparison, Japan with the world's oldest population, a population of 120 million, has only 24000 and 10000 are already occupied by the sick from other infections. Milan, Italy had 48.

But more so then the medical preparedness, is the economic steps that Russia has taken to make sure that a post infection economic crash does not come at the end of the month long quarantine.

Europe and the US panicked, sending everyone into lock down without a single thought about how the already financially overstretched and struggling populations will feed themselves and survive a month plus without money to buy food and in some cases without food, not to mention pay rents, credit debts and utilities. All plans came only as an after thought, not much for proper full spectrum planning. Over 10 million have filed for unemployment in the US alone, in just two weeks. Unheard of numbers.

The Russian government, spearheaded by President Putin has avoided this and has put in key points for both the workers and the small and medium businesses. They are as follows:

For people:

1. 50% increase to unemployment benefits by the Federal government, so that unemployment will not be less than the minimum allowed salary. Sure a person will not be eating steaks on this but he will not be starving either. Unemployment is available to anyone who has worked for at least 4 months previously. As a comparison, in the US unemployment is available only to those who work full time, on contract pay (not hourly workers) and has worked at least 12 months previously.

2. Provinces will add to the unemployment payout as much as their budgets allow. Moscow for one will double the unemployment payouts of the Federal government.

3. Sick leave pay has also been increased by 50%.

4. People facing unemployment or inability to pay credit due to pay cuts are now able to take a 6 month credit holiday from payments. Banks, by law, have 3 days to process the paperwork and freeze credits.

5. Pensions will be indexed +6%.

6. Filing for Bankruptcy is now free.

For business:

1. For small and medium businesses percent free loans to pay salaries up to 20 million rubles ($270.000 at current exchange rates) without a need to pay back for 8 months after the emergency is lifted.

2. Rents owed on Federally owned lands and infrastructure waived for 8 months.

3. All taxes on rent givers are waved in exchange for them lowering the rent payments demanded from their renters.

4. All business taxes, with the exception of VAT, are waved for 6 months.

5. Large funds for investment in support of whole business sectors.

6. Bankruptcy for businesses can be stalled for 8 months.

Other ideas are still being worked out.

As you can see, the Russian government is dead set on making sure Russian bounces back fast, hard and ahead of its Western competition. But to make sure Russia does not become a temporary slush fund for Western credit, two additional laws were passed:

1. a 13% tax on all percents, dividends and other earnings on deposits or investments over 1 million rubles. This is only on the money earned, as money making money will now be equated to income, unlike in many countries, so the rich will pay their fair share along with all workers.

2. a 15% tax on all monies being transferred out of Russia. So it will no longer be a quick slush fund and get the cash out later, doing damage to the economy built on those monies. At least a portion will remain in the country to be put back into the economy.

Now we will wait and see what other new projects or laws will come in and only time will tell who in 2 months will be standing, who will be on their knees and who will be on the floor bleeding out with a white chalk outline.

God Bless.

Update 6 April 2020

The situation on the ground has continued to evolve, with several governmental and non-governmental actions starting to continue easing life for Russians and Russian business.

1. Sberbank has created a payment holiday for its clients, for up to 6 months. This, unfortunately, does not mean that percents are not accuring, but payments can be put off, as follows:
   -- Mortgages up to 1.5 million rubles
   -- personal loans up to 250.000 rubles
   -- automobile loans up to 600.000 rubles
   -- credit cards up to 100.000 rubles
   -- small business short term loans up to 300.000 rubles
While the sums are small, it is a start.

2. Government has cut pension contributions from businesses for their employees by 50%. This is the biggest chunk of the payroll taxes that a business has to pay.

3. Internet- all major internet providers have agreed that they will not cut service for those who are unable to pay, during the crisis period, however long it lasts.

Update 8 April 2020

The Russian government has allocated 10 billion rubles ($133 million) to double the salaries of medical personnel fighting the Coronavirus out break.

Emergency salary loans to small and medium businesses are now full operative and are being turned around in under a day. Bank staff are working from 0800 to 2400 daily.

Update 17 April 2020

In order to recharge the economy once the locks downs are over, the Russian government is now offering guaranteed 6.5% mortgages, with the government picking up the tab for any percentage above the 6.5% level. The mortgage level limit is 5 million rubles for Moscow and St. Petersburg and 3 million for the rest of the country.

Update 1 June 2020

The Russian government has now started to pay a one time sum of 10,000 rubles per child between the ages of 5 and 16. The first deposits have started and parents have up to the end of September to file.

Government loans to small and medium businesses for the purpose of paying salaries have now been modified so that if 90% of the work force is kept on, the government will wave the debt totally. If 80% of the work force is kept, 50% will be waved.

When Dealing With Russian Suppliers: Hold Areas

Western companies, especially European companies, when developing drawings for large engineering projects, have a tendency to complete an 80-90% drawing, with various "Hold" areas where technical issues are still open for one reason or another. 

These drawings are then passed on to their Western suppliers who begin the manufacturing process and await updates that cover these "Hold" areas. 

This does not work with Russian suppliers. Russian suppliers want all technical questions answered before they commit to work and will not begin until everything is worked through and signed by both parties. 

Part of this stems from the unwanted risk of loosing money on having to redo work. The majority, however, arises from legal concerns. If a tragic incident occurs from such unorthodox work methods, Russian prosecutors will go after everyone from the CEO to the line engineer of the manufacturer. Thus such risks are considered unacceptable at personal levels. 

Often what happens in such a "relationship" is that the Russian manufacturer will raise the issues verbally, and be told not to worry about it, its for later. They will not start work. Then they will begin to write letters to the client and his engineering department. In the case of an Italian company I worked for, the project manager laughed in their faces that he just threw their stupid letters out and they would get the answers when it damn well suited him. I, as the procurement project manager had to repeatedly explain to him and the Italian engineers that realize it or not, they are not doing any work till they get the answers and our due dates are quickly slipping out. 

Such cultural misunderstandings or especially on the part of western Europeans, absolute refusal to consider cultural and legal differences and frameworks led us to long delays, sour relations and stiff fines.

Food for thought.

How to Motivate Russians

A few years back, I had a senior regional vice-president from Houston give me and others advice that the only way to motivate Russians is with the whip. He thought he was at the peak of wisdom, when in reality he showed everyone, who was Russian anyways, his absolute ignorance. 

This, like many stereotypes comes from yellow propaganda of the Cold War that dipicted Russians as some sort of slave race under either the Tsars (who were hardly what one would call despotic) or Communist leadership. 

True, Stalin did use slave labour, but this was first and foremost against political opponents not as a form of economics.

So what then? Money? To some degree, yes but that wears thin on the Russian soul rather quickly.

Now wait, if I can not whip them or bribe them, then how do you motivate those damn Russians? Or is it all a riddle in a quandary? 

Truth be told, it is all much simpler than that. Russia is a great nation, one that has withstood what would have ground any other people into sand. A quick perusual of Russia's 1400 year history will quickly teach that lesson. 

 So what is the secret? Its in that Greatness itself. Russia and Russians must always have a great cause to strive for. Be it for the Mother Russia of the ancient knyazei (princes) or Holy Third Rome Defender of Orthodox Christianity of the Tsars or the World Proletariat Unite of the early Bolsheviks or Building Enlightened Communism of the later Bolsheviks, Russians have to have an overwhelming goal to strive and sacrifice for, to believe in. 

This is why the 90s were such a disaster. The Communists fell and all the new, corrupt, self absorbed leadership could come up with was: now we will be like all other nations....what? That's it? Then there is nothing to strive for. And that is one of the keys to President Putin's success, to some degree, he has returned those ideas, albait still in a murky form. 

 So there is the example. Your workers are not just building and designing trucks, they are building the best trucks in the world that will be exported all over the world. Your genetisists and their lab assistants are not just making vaccines but are making vaccines which will save the lives of millions of children. 

But do not make these empty words. When the leadership does not believe in what it is saying, the Russian worker will see through the smoke quite quickly and then you are in an even worse state than before. 

To manage in Russia is to lead in Russia and for that you need actual leaders and leaders with vision, vision that goes further than the next quarterly report. Who is up for the task?

GOST: Yes Russia Does Have Standards

Many foreigners, when dealing with Russia in thr 90s and on, and even today are under the very big misimpression that Russia has no government standards that its business operates under and thus the foreign business is free to do as it pleases. 

This, of course, could not be further from the truth. Since 1925, Russia has been operating under GOST (Government Standard)...yes, those latin words do translate that close.  GOST is a set of standards that covers everything from food preparation to building construction to wire manufacturing. At present they are undergoing their biggest review since their inception with several thousand outdated standards being removed or heavily redacted.

This is a very thick series of standards that cover all manufacturing of any and all products or product categories. Companies are allowed to make technical exceptions to GOST but these must be approved by the appropriate GOST committees and can not be weaker than the existing standards. GOST has been translated into English and is available online.

I have heard numerous times that Gazprom, Rusneft or some other entity has agreed to API standarsa whicg is why we are producing in API instead of GOST. But here is the key, they agree to exploit (use) the API standard project NOT accept it for exploitation. Acceptance or completed projects is conducted by Rostecnadzor (Russian Technological Supervision) which is the government agency that must sign off before a project is completed and accepted, and they work exclusively in GOST. 

Now, however, if you are manufacturing for exportation out of Russia and not into another nation adhering to GOST, you can manufacture to whatever standards you wish.

You Work Remotely and Are Not Living in Russia?

Surely than you do not value your money or appreciate your own efforts.

 Now that I have your attention, lets deconstruct the Western myths and lies and discover why for remote workers, Russia is the optimum place to live.

 Lets begin with some life basics. Russia is not a frozen gray hellhole of unsmiling people, perpetual winter and vodka fuelled depression. I will deconstruct these myths in detail in a later piece. And while some villages and some remote provincial towns may look like that, the majority of the country is modern and filled with all the conveniences Westerns are used to. Go to any large grocery store and you will be hit by a selection of dairy, cheeses and meat products twice as large as the average American is likely to see in his life time in an average US supermarket. As for climate, Russia has everything from deep subtropics to frozen arctic, from sandy beaches to deep forests, from steppe to impenetrable mountains, so you get a wide variety of choices in that category too.

 But that aside, let us review things such as the costs of working or doing business. Just for starters, in the Ease of Doing Business Index for 2018, Russia rates in 31st place, up from 35th in 2017 and way up from the low score of 124 just 8 years ago. This puts Russia ahead of such heavy weights as France, 32, Switzerland, 38, Japan, 39, China, 46, US Puerto Rico, 64, India, 77, Brazil, 109.

 Lets go deeper, we will begin with taxes.

 If you are a resident of Russia and a tax resident (you spend at least 183 days in Russia) you pay low local taxes, which for most employees is 13% income and the rest the employer picks up. However, if you are working for yourself or with a very small staff, you can register with the tax authorities as an individualni predprinimatel (individual businessman). The simplified tax is 6% of income, plus gov insurance and pension taxes, which translates into approximately 7% taxes. Big difference from a US base tax starting in the 20% and up.

Now, if you are an American and spend less than 36 days in the US per year, your first $107,000.00 are US income tax free, so you only need pay the Russian 7%. Good deal or what? And filing those taxes is extremely simple, no need to hire expensive accountants or spend days over the tax programs.

Then there is the fact that your every day expenses will be half or less what you are used to paying in the US. For example, a phone plan with 10Gbytes internet, 100 texts and 1000 minutes will run you about $10, while a high speed cable internet connection with unlimited download will set you back on average $20. There are 4 major phone companies and an average of 5-10 ISP providers in any major city or town. Electricity and gas is dirt cheap.  For example, one kw of electricity will run you on average $0.06 and gas for heating is even cheaper.

 Rent, outside of Moscow or the first tier cities, will set you back about $200 for a 1 room apartment, $500 for a three room. Foreigners are also allowed to purchase none agricultural lands, so you could easily purchase an apartment or house. As a matter of fact, doing this is the fast way to help get you to the top of the list for residency.

To prove this point, I will compare below the cost of living in three American cities: NYC, Houston, Oklahoma City with three Russian cities: Moscow, St.Petersburg, Krasnodar. For this, I will use Numbeo.com

 NYC: Moscow
You would need around 2,879.43$ (187,874.03руб) in Moscow to maintain the same standard of life that you can have with 7,900.00$ in New York, NY (assuming you rent in both cities). This calculation uses our Cost of Living Plus Rent Index to compare cost of living. This assumes net earnings (after income tax).
NYC: St.Petersburg
You would need around 2,277.78$ (148,618.09руб) in Saint Petersburg to maintain the same standard of life that you can have with 7,900.00$ in New York, NY (assuming you rent in both cities). This calculation uses our Cost of Living Plus Rent Index to compare cost of living. This assumes net earnings (after income tax).

NYC: Krasnodar
You would need around 1,781.46$ (116,235.10руб) in Krasnodar to maintain the same standard of life that you can have with 7,900.00$ in New York, NY (assuming you rent in both cities). This calculation uses our Cost of Living Plus Rent Index to compare cost of living. This assumes net earnings (after income tax).

Houston: Moscow
You would need around 2,845.95$ (185,689.96руб) in Moscow to maintain the same standard of life that you can have with 4,300.00$ in Houston, TX (assuming you rent in both cities). This calculation uses our Cost of Living Plus Rent Index to compare cost of living. This assumes net earnings (after income tax).
Houston: St.Petersburg
You would need around 2,251.30$ (146,890.38руб) in Saint Petersburg to maintain the same standard of life that you can have with 4,300.00$ in Houston, TX (assuming you rent in both cities). This calculation uses our Cost of Living Plus Rent Index to compare cost of living. This assumes net earnings (after income tax).
Houston: Krasnodar
You would need around 1,760.75$ (114,883.85руб) in Krasnodar to maintain the same standard of life that you can have with 4,300.00$ in Houston, TX (assuming you rent in both cities). This calculation uses our Cost of Living Plus Rent Index to compare cost of living. This assumes net earnings (after income tax).
Oklahoma City: Moscow
You would need around 2,886.37$ (187,050.13руб) in Moscow to maintain the same standard of life that you can have with 3,600.00$ in Oklahoma City, OK (assuming you rent in both cities). This calculation uses our Cost of Living Plus Rent Index to compare cost of living. This assumes net earnings (after income tax).

Oklahoma City: St.Petersburg
You would need around 2,278.90$ (147,683.50руб) in Saint Petersburg to maintain the same standard of life that you can have with 3,600.00$ in Oklahoma City, OK (assuming you rent in both cities). This calculation uses our Cost of Living Plus Rent Index to compare cost of living. This assumes net earnings (after income tax).

Oklahoma City: Krasnodar
You would need around 1,782.41$ (115,508.23руб) in Krasnodar to maintain the same standard of life that you can have with 3,600.00$ in Oklahoma City, OK (assuming you rent in both cities). This calculation uses our Cost of Living Plus Rent Index to compare cost of living. This assumes net earnings (after income tax).

And do not worry so much about Russian. Not only are english language menus and such available in most places in the larger cities, but the language itself is not nearly as difficult to grasp as you are led to believe. Sure you may need a few years of effort before you are reading Dostoyevskii in Russian, but you will grasp enough in half a year to live and get around, and if need be, hiring a part time translator is not expensive.
And finally, that costliest of all things for any American, the medical bills. Russia, like many European countries, has a dual medical system. The first is a government universal coverage that comes out of your and every other person’s taxes. This is available to all legal residents of Russia. Depending on what you need done and where you live on the quality of the service. Basic dental work or check ups will not require a long wait, more serious issues may and the further you are from the main cities, the worse the quality. The government is investing huge sums and providing incentives for doctors to move to small towns and villages, but this is all work in progress.
There is also the private sector, which for the most part, is high quality. There are of course quacks and crooks, like in any system, so buyer beware. But lets compare: the writer of this column had an infected molar, in which one of the roots rotted out and collapsed. The tooth was removed, all pieces of the root were removed, gum was opened up, drained and sewn up. All told, the cost was $90. In the US, the same operation costs $1,600 on average. An implant was put in the place of the lost tooth. The top of the line implant plus labour ran this author $550. In the US you will be lucky to escape with only $3-4,000. And so on and so on.
So, ready to make the life enhancing move you deserve? I will outline just how to do this, in the next instalment.

Characteristics of a Russian Meeting

As anyone meeting with anyone in Russia, there are a few ground rules you should be aware of: 

1. Timeliness While Russians are not as prompt as Germans, Russians are rather prompt. So being 5 minutes late is ok, anything later needs an excuse and one that is preferably called ahead. Aka: We are stuck in traffic. Being 30-40 or more minutes late without a formal reason, such as the tendency of Italians or Spaniards, is considered very bad manners. 

A side note on this, if during the meeting you agree to set due dates or deadlines for some document or action, be sure to accomplish it by the agreed upon date. Everything during the meeting will be set down in writing in the Minutes of Meeting and not meeting due dates is a major blow to one's credibility and reliability in Russia.

2. Inclusiveness It is considered very rude to turn your back on someone while continuing your conversation with another person in the group...one to remember for non-Russians who have no such issues. This additionally means, turning to your co-workers, and beginning a conversation in a separate language not understood by everyone. This is also considered very rude. If the need arises to have such a discussion, request some time alone, a break from the meeting and maybe a separate room to do so in.

 3. Emotions While getting into an emotionally "hot" discussion happens, never over do it. Never get personal and never ever ever throw a temper tantrum and walk out. I had an EPC project manager who would do this. He had zero respect from the other side who had to beg him to return. This is viewed as unmanly and childish.

4. Shaking Hands Do it with everyone and anyone who enters the room after the start and before you hand out or receive business cards individually. When leaving, equally, shake everyone's hand. Walking by some person who stops to talk to someone in your party? Shake his hand. And make it a firm hand shake. Additionally, women shake hands also, so not to shake the hand of a woman is a grave insult.

5. Woman enters the room to join the meeting? Get up and show respect, as if it was a senior person, and since 42% of Russian executives are women (twice that of the progressive West) it just may be. Additionally, if there are no more seats, surrender yours to the woman.

6. Bargain Hard Russian price negotiations used to be described as something between a mugging and a bar fight. Its gotten a bit more civilized but....I remember fighting a supplier over each 0.01$ of a price on forgings...ok we finally agreed to limit it to just full round dollars or we would never get done. Pulled out 15% savings from already low prices which saved us several million dollars. 

7. Never take the initial NO IT CANT BE DONE as the end answer. If the junior or secondary management says no, go straight to the senior leadership. If they say yes it will be yes. Equally, since the culture is conservative, use your persuasion skills to sell the idea, either by its merits or by its profitability.

8. Figure out who the trusted lieutenant of the general director is. Russian chain of commands are linier except for that special lieutenant who has the ear of the boss. 

9. Meetings must come to some decisions...why else are you in a meeting, other than if its just an introductory meeting.Southern peoples like to have meetings for the sake of meetings and no decisions are reached, this is very infuriating to Russians. Most meetings usually have a set agenda and the agenda is set to come to a decision.

10. All meetings will end in a Minutes of the Meeting with all parties involved signing. Sometimes getting the MoM done takes longer than the whole meeting and all parties most definitely must sign it, so be careful what actually goes in to it, as this is a legal document.

Why Russian Steel Goods Are Cheaper

There is an age old, ok more like several decades old, myth, that all things from China....and if not China then surely India, are cheaper and better quality than anything Europe and for that matter Russia can produce.

The truth of the matter is that this is a well crafted PR illusion that China has nourished for two decades and that most American managers, directors and VPs accept on blind faith. One sr. director of mine would repeat "I can't believe that Russia is cheaper than China" over and over at the start of every weekly meeting, even as we poured resources into establishing Russian suppliers. The facts were right there in front of him and with quite a bit of personal push we were moving in the right direction, but some part of him could no believe it.

He even had other supply chain managers demand that the Chinese forge shops give him the same prices as our Russian suppliers. To his credit, they did. Unfortunately for the company, that only lasted long enough for the company to invest in dies and samples and then the Chinese bumped their prices straight back up.

But why is this so and in what steel goods?

True, in open die forgings, the Chinese are kings and for good reason. Open die forgings are low technology, no engineering efforts pushing out blocks and round bar. You can easily dump minimally trained employees on to these efforts and the equipment does not need to be to high tech.

However, the Chinese quickly loose all advantages when faced with manufacturing details that are complex and thus engineering and machine driven. Closed die forgings, detailed machining, coatings and assemblies are all such items and in all such items, the Chinese are not cost compatible, not if a real analysis is done, and  when TCO costing models are used, it gets even worse.

Russian suppliers, in these categories, tend to be 10-40% CHEAPER than the Chinese. Yes, that's not a misprint. No its not 1-4% it is 10-40% and with the ruble devaluation, things have gotten even better.

Furthermore, taking into account TCO (Total Cost of Ownership), things only get worse. Considering that once producing at high quality, Russian manufacturers will remain true to the course and take great pride in manufacturing quality. Chinese suppliers tend to take great pride in maximizing profits and that tends to come at the cost of quality. Any shortcuts even potentially deadly ones will be observed over time with most Chinese suppliers.

We experienced several cases where we were forced to scrap up to half the Chinese production, which was still considered a good buy because of the per piece cost (on paper). Well, dear fellows, when you scrap half, the base price just doubled and that is before you count holding inventory costs, logistics, replacement (usually out of desperation at the highest spot prices) and lost business and contractual fines.

Furthermore, Russia is better placed to service Europe and the US logistically, with shorter routes and thus quicker times, requiring less safety stock to maintain. Russian suppliers get the 18% VAT refunded to them when their production goes to export, another price advantage on the bottom line.

Over all, you just should not argue with reality....but many Western managers just do.

The New Realities of Russian Sourcing

Many in the West may have missed the fact that Russia has opted out of Recession and has entered a  weak, economic growth phase. It has decoupled from Sanctions and has partially decoupled from the price of oil, with an economy based on manufacturing that is continuing to diversify. As a matter of fact, resource based economics makes up roughly 19% of the Russian GDP. This is the situation that brings us to this topic.

Sanctions, like war, bite and often bite the hand that unleashes them. A large part of Russia’s uplift has been based on over a score of major infrastructural and industrial mega projects that had previously been put off or the need for which had not been apparent as well as import substitution with various degrees of government assistance, something that was all but lacking in the pre Cold War 2.0 era.

To that end, the Russian government has taken a series of projects to economically expand the Far East and create the needed energy infrastructure to develop the Asian market away from Europe. Four greenfield projects, in the $2-4 Billion range are in the works for the Amur River area, specifically the Amurskaya Oblast. The first is entering its third and final stage of construction.

So how are sanctions biting?

On these and other government funded projects, American suppliers, unless working specifically through European/Asian or Russian subsidiaries and manufacturing in Russia, Europe or Asia, are banned from the projects, as politically unreliable suppliers. Yes, the Russian government has heard the US Congress’ continuous drum beat of economic, financial and political warfare and has shot back and as usual, while the US Congress gets fat off of special interest donations, US workers will suffer lost opportunities. The only exception to this is when unique technologies are at stake, but this is a rare exception.

Equally US companies, like Exxon, have lost their place in the various artic projects. Just in one light sweet crude oil patch in the Kara Sea, Exxon, who had a 10% stake, has lost an estimated $100 billion over a 10 year period. No, that was not a mistake in the number of zeros.

However, Europeans and Asians should not feel too relieved, as this position is not the only new force in play.

Going into effect on 1 January 2017 was a new decree signed by President Putin that specified a preference for local, Russian manufacturing. It works as follows: whenever a tender is launched, and everything now requires a full tender, and a foreign company is competing against a Russian company, the Russian company’s bid is automatically counted as 15% cheaper. In the event that the foreign company still wins, they are then forced to automatically lower their last bid offer by a further 15% or be disqualified.

Considering that 38% of the Russian economy is manufacturing based, with huge inflows in investment over the past 36 months, most everything needed for these projects can be found in country, either from Russian or foreign manufacturers. And that makes sense, considering that Russia has the lowest utility costs, some of the lowest taxes, lowest wage rates and low cost raw resources.

Due to sanctions, four automobile engine plants were built over the past 5 years. Compare that to zero for the proceeding 24 years. Nissan now builds cars in Russia for export to Mexico, South America and SE Asia. Half a year ago, Mercedes opened a new manufacturing plant, just west of Moscow. The state of the art plant employees some 1.500 employees for full cycle assembly.

What does not make sense is the raw fear of many medium and small Western companies to manufacture in Russia, where companies can sue and win against the government, as opposed to many countries where these corporations do manufacture. Russia ranks 28 in the World Bank’s list of countries in the Ease of Doing Business Index, moving up over 92 positions in 7 years. To put this in perspective, Japan is 29, China 31, France 32, Netherlands 42, Belgium 46, Italy 58, India 63, Brazil 124.

Since major reforms and extremely pro-business economic conditions have not been enough to fight against the Western yellow journalism, the government has decided to make a more pointed approach to forcing localization. Since Russia is one of the few countries running well over a dozen major mega projects in an otherwise recessionary global economy, they have the leverage to do so.