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Shifts in the Russian military tops - Qua bene?

Well, there were new of many changes in the Russian military. The minister od Defence, Serdyukov has been firead and replaced by Mr. Shoigu, a well-known ex of the Ministry of Disasters and the ex-governor of the Moscow region.

I have heard an interesting opinion regarding this issue. Well, it was obvious, the military hated Serdukov bacuse he was a civilian, a reformist and an accountant by nature.

He was also hated by the Russian arms production industry. The reason why was simple. He dared to challenge the view, that Kalashnikovs are the best rifles in the world and other munitions are the best, no matter how old, reparable and expensive they are.

Well, farewell Mr. Serdukov

Early sleep

Sending to orders tomorrow

University of Liverpool online

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The Lost World of Communism (Part 1)

Russian Railways - 170 years anniversary

Russian prank calls - humor with a twist

Well, I have originaly devoted this blog to dull things like business, customs, sales and other things. Tonight I am taking a break and writing an article about prank calls in Russia. I hope that this article of mine may provide some insigt into the Russian culture and perharps would allow to understand us, Russians better.

Russian prank callers may or may not be part of a large internet-based subculture. If they are, they may join one of several groups, centered around particular leaders and often theme websites. The history of Russian prank calling began in the late 1980's when a cassete with records of conversations with an old man started flowing from hand to hand between Moscow's young men. The old man sure was a hard man for his voice was charismatic, full of special terms and very, very addictive. "You are all under the glass cap. We are watching your every step. There are serious people from the Spetsnaz watching your every step"... so he adressed the caller. The man, who is still alive hasbeen named "Ded IVZ" - "Information-Detection-Center old man". He remains an icon to this day.

Currently, the culture of prank callers is complex and quite different from, say, American jokers. Russian pranks involve long-lasting relations over the phone. The person recieving the calls is often referred to as "The victim" and the term may not be too far from accurate. Russian prankers are in constant search for "victims" who would last for several months or even years. This almost certainly means either mental problems or worst cases of human vanity, often found in TV-stars. There has been a case of a third-rate tv persona gaining publicity by becoming a renowned prank victim.

The most famous prank victims include:

- TV and movie stars. There used to be a prank website, dedicated to harassing famous Russians by phone. Some were involved in 20-40 conversations long stories.

- True "victims". One old lady with issues defined the callers as the company of the son of the local school principal, who "sells drugs and practices sodomy" and carried on cursing every caller viciously for 5 full years.
An old doctor with a prison term for illegal abortions behind his back was lured into believing he was being pressed by an old colleague of his. Threats, curses and often clever definitions lasted for a full year. As he began to turn the phone off, pizza delivery services, household moving companies, prostitutes and vets were sent to his doors to get the old man angry.

One particular trend in the Russian prank is dedicated to annoying officials. Police departments and especially the Army's recruiting offices often get pranked.

Russia's WTO opportunities: small business perspective.

It happens som that I work in small business and deal with the Russian customs regulary, so I can think of myself as a reliable source of informationn regarding the issue. What dis Russia gain by officially entering the WTO? What do small businesses gain or lose? What happens to the general population? Well, most populist polititians from all directions found a way to bark at the WTO. I remembe speeches and articles, stating that WTO would:
- Kill the Russian agriculture
- Kill the Russian manufacturing companies
- Force Russia to privatize many enterprizes
- Fill the Russian market with GMO's and other evils

As a consumer, I have noticed none of those. There are no interesting changes on supermarket shelves. The balance between imported and local foods remains pretty much the same as it used to be before the WTO bill was signed.

Apart from ideology of freedom and transparency, the WTO is mainly about customs regimes. Technically, it is little more except the agreement to limit customs bills and to restrain from pouring money into failing sectors of the economy. The latter never aplies to banks, it seems. Well, they never produce anything anyway.

So, now to the customs we go. I always ask my customs broker: "Any WTO news?" The reply is steady "No, the regular Bedlam". The meaning of this can be explained by the following:
- Russia has agreed to shift the customs import fees down for some groups of products over a period of 6 years.
- No shifts that I know of have happened by November 1st 2012.
- There are no changes in the customs procedures

What does this mean for an international company moving something across the Russian border? Well, remember that Russia is not part of the EU. You should get acquainted with the Customs Code of the Customs Union to determine, on what grounds can your goods or equipment be brought to Russia. No matter what a company brings to Russia, submitting a customs declaration is inevitable and in case the goods are subject to certification, the procedure may become a nightmare. You are welcome to ask me directly and I will try to answe as best I can.

Moscow Exhibitions: Booth design, trends etc

I just came back from an exhibition in Moscow, called Intercharm. The event was large, expensive and hard as usual. 4 days of 12-hour shifts with little sleep and a lot of presentation work. Since I work in St. Petersburg, some of the issues regarding this Moscow event were somewhat strange to me. Not that I did not know about them, but rather that they seem worth underlining to me.

The event takse place in the Crocus Center outside Moscow. The complex includes 4 exhibition halls a mall, a concert hall and a hotel. The hotel is a 3-star, but during the Intercharm, room rates went up to 400 USD per night. So, we had to live in Moscow and take an hour-long ride in the Moscow subway to the exhibition.

We had the booth designed by a St. Petersburg exhibition company we've been working with for over a decade. They are good guys, but the designer seems a bit lazy. Generally, I draw the booth oiutline in Google Sketchup and send them a Jpeg so that they know, what I mean.

They do the graphics, we approved the final design, which looked somewhat like that:

We have abandoned the idea of using standard-issue constructions, as it is very important to stand out on a major exhibition, given that forst-row booths are somehow NEVER EVER given to anyone except the big Moscow companies.  So, during the planning, my major concerns were:
- The booth should stand out
- The booth should allow to vizualise the goods
- The booth should have a large storage space
- The audiovisual systems should work all right durig the show

I designed some kind of an original system for this exhibition. Out company is not rich enough to compose a 2 meter wide screeo of 4 HDTV's mounted on a frame, so I found a cheaper solution. The wall of the storage room is actually a screen for the projector, mounted on the side of the tower stand to the right. The distance is about 4 meters, so, given the slight shade from the banner, the 3000 lumen projector provides a sufficiently clear picture. It has to be on top, so that the image does not get abstructed by people, working at the booth.

I used my notebook as a source for films, presentations and slide shows, while the camera, connected via HDMI allowed to show large images of cosmetic procedures on the improvized screen. This is very useful, when presenting products for the use on the face. In the nail business, not having a system with a camera feed on a large screen is suisidal.

I have my favorite sound system, composed of a 3 "in" mixer from Mackey, a SHURE wireless system and a  pair of studio monitors (I have been usiung the M-Audio BX 5A for the last 3 years). The studio monitors are powerful enough, still, they are small and can be used at home for the rest of the year. A total of 18 meters of audio cables allows to move the gear freely across the booth.

I always start the exhibition by taking a walk around, asking the neighbours, if the level of sound on my booth is comfortable to them.

Now back to the Crocus center.

Surprises are:
- Paid acess for trucks with exibition materials ($250)
- No printing facilities (only one copy machine at the service reception, making copies for 50 cents a page and printing for 90 cents a page. We always take a printer to the exhibition, as 1500 pages is not the limit for "suddenly run out papers".
- Bad food
- Paid wifi in the exhibition hall. Wifi acess costs $150 for 4 days for 1 computer and mobile internet fails frequently inside the exhibition complex.

Now to the market trends.
It seems that Russian cosmetologists and their clients have decided to go mad. I have repeatedly heard the following phrase: "Blah, you've got c-o-s-m-e-t-i-c-s! Ahh, that stuff never works. We are here for injection therapy only! Well, seems like most of Moscow's well-to-do ladies start having botox at 25 and a multitude of mesotherapy coctails, fillers, gels, placenta extracts, stem cell extracts and the like injected int their skin. This may sound stange for European ears, but it is generally true for the Russian metropolia. Take into account the fact that some cosmetologists often can't boast anything except a degree in nursing and most "injection therapy classes" last 2-3 days "on condition of a purchase" and you will get the idea of what a market that is.

After it all ended, I went to a knife exhibition to hear a lovely story of one of the knife-selling companies having had an exployee arrested right at the exhibition after the police managed to trick her into skipping the paperwork. =) Well, I am so glad I left Moscow for home!

Building a virtual business

Well, my venture is slowly moving on. My curent goal is simple - I need to collect the money for the next purchase of materials.

So what have I managed to do? Now I hava an internet-store and a small operation selling Kydex across Russia.

Now some things I've managed not to introduce:

- Rented office
- Staff
- Store