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.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I am probably the biggest equity investor in the history of modern Russia.
I do not like the idea that a Russian company cannot be successful without Western experience. I think that, at the end of the day, it is a question of bringing benchmarks from other countries. So far, the golden benchmark has been the West.
Russia is an amazing country to be an entrepreneur.
Business in Russia was not being done like in the West, with contracts. In Russia, hundreds of millions of dollars were going forward and backward by word of mouth.
If you can't make 40% on your money in Russia, you're a fool.
I never chose to be in Russia, and I would prefer to be in my own country, but if I can't make it home, I will continue to work very much in the same way that I have... What happens to me is not as important; I simply serve as the mechanism of disclosure.
Many people thought I would never succeed, because I am so Russian. So Russian, hundred percent.
Lots of businesses built in the early 1990s were not very transparent, not only by Russians, but also by foreigners.
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.
From the country with limited hope to grow your own business and express your own personality, Russia has become the land of significant opportunity.