If I had done what I was programmed to do, I would now be sitting in a car factory looking at the sizes of wheels, or wondering how to get credit to start a new factory in Russia.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Everybody starts with creating or acquiring certain property in order to create the material to work with. When we started our business, we thought first of all about development, how to grow, and we managed to do this, even with all the difficulties and all the difficult rules that were implemented in Russia at that time.
Before I left Russia in 1999, I was living in a very poor factory town with my family and friends, and nothing was ever going to change.
I am president of Russian Standard Company, biggest luxury vodka in Russia. My bank, Russian Standard Bank, issues biggest number of credit cards in Russia. I want for Russian people to have their own best vodka, their own best bank, their own best credit card.
I live a very different life now, with incredible privileges, but looking back I realise that growing up in Russia gave me tools that other people don't necessarily have - such as the will to push that bit further, to make things happen, to succeed.
Bill Gates finds people in Russia to hire them to Microsoft. That's the Russian interest in this process.
All the big online retailers are looking at how to enter the Russian market.
It was always a challenge for me to prove that a Russian financial investor can be as successful in the West as back at home in Russia.
I've had a lot of luck. If I didn't I'd be washing bottles in Russia.
The government in Russia does not tell me what to do with my assets.
The way the business things work in Russia is you have to meet people, you have to go through a certain amount of etiquette and business things are done just simply by a shake of the hand and whether they like you or not.