I was among one of the first entrepreneurs to start building their own private enterprise when Perestroika began in Russia and the state initiated its first market-oriented reforms.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
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.
I started like many young Russian people in the beginning of perestroika when it seemed that everything was possible.
Russia is an amazing country to be an entrepreneur.
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 am probably the biggest equity investor in the history of modern Russia.
Frankly speaking, I decided to become a businessman at the moment when I understood that it is possible, because I grew up in a country where it was not possible. There existed even a special article in the penal code of the Soviet Union which punished entrepreneurial activity.
Lots of businesses built in the early 1990s were not very transparent, not only by Russians, but also by foreigners.
Sometimes people ask me why I began perestroika. Were the causes basically domestic or foreign? The domestic reasons were undoubtedly the main ones, but the danger of nuclear war was so serious that it was a no less significant factor.
From the country with limited hope to grow your own business and express your own personality, Russia has become the land of significant opportunity.
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.
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