Re-Sovietization

Scratch the surface of an expat from a Western country who chooses to live in Russia, even in the relatively civilized metropolis of Moscow, for any amount of time, and you’ll often find a thrillseeker, someone who doesn't like to stay between the lines. These people are attracted to the unpredictability of life in Russia, the fact that it often seems anything can happen, which carries with it the possibility for challenges which don’t arise in “developed” countries and also for unexpected excitement.

As we move deeper into the Putin era, with its trademark stability and order, the pleasant feeling of unpredictability is diminishing. It used to be that you couldn't expect to get things done as efficiently as in the West, but the compensation for that was that you could get away with things here that you couldn't get away with there. Now it feels more like the little guy is no longer able to get away with anything, but the authorities still have the right to be as capricious as they want in preventing business from operating normally.

Individual operators are being kept "within the lines," but there have been no corresponding restrictions on the way the authorities operate. For example, there has been a great deal of talk about introducing open container laws in Russia lately - for those of you not familiar with American terminology, those are laws which prevent people from drinking beer outside - but no one talks about bringing any order to the activities of the shakedown artists in militia uniforms who stop people for document checks with no probable cause and demand that they have a local registration, an institution that was declared unconstitutional years ago. I guess it's all part of the creeping re-Sovietization of society.

More on the situation with Ikea and Mega Mall 2, which seems somehow relevant to these random musings:

The Independent (UK)
December 15, 2004
In fear of his life: Ikea's man in Moscow tells of threats and bribes
By Andrew Osborn in Moscow

Russia's "wild East" image as a place where doing business can cost you your life as well as your life-savings was resurrected yesterday by the head of Ikea's local operations who claimed he was living in fear of his life.
Lennart Dahlgren suggested that Ikea, the Swedish retail giant which is the largest foreign retail investor in Russia, was being blackmailed for bribes by corrupt officials who were blocking the opening of a new shopping mall in the crucial run-up to the new year.

Mr Dahlgren, a Swede, did not spell out exactly who had threatened him but hinted that Ikea had run into problems because it had refused to hand over bribes to officials, who routinely supplement their miserly salaries by extorting money from the people they are supposed to be helping.

The situation came to a head last Friday when Ikea was supposed to open a new superstore on the outskirts of northern Moscow as part of an R7bn (£130m) shopping complex called Mega-2. Scores of guests were invited, including the Swedish and German ambassadors. At the last minute, however, local authorities intervened and ordered the firm to cancel the opening because the store was deemed to be "unfinished". It was the second time in a month that the opening had been cancelled. The authorities alleged that
Ikea had failed to make good on a series of investment obligations, including building a road junction and making an underground gas pipe safe.

Ikea claims it has not been able to comply with such demands because the same authorities have repeatedly denied it planning permission.

Mr Dahlgren told the daily Izvestia yesterday he was now frightened for his safety. "I fear for my own life. I don't understand what is going on and I consider the current situation to be sabotage - against Russia," he said. "You need to have a certain amount of courage to speak out about an unfair situation that has been created by the authorities."

Though cagey about the precise nature of the problem in Russia, Mr Dahlgren has spoken openly about it in Sweden. "Like all Western companies [in Russia] we're subject to blackmail, sabotage and pressure for bribes. In many cases we're totally in the hands of local chieftains. Ikea is big [in Russia] and doesn't pay bribes." [...]

Russia's business climate is considered safer than it was in the 1990s, but bribery remains a core part of doing business here and Russian businessmen are still regularly shot by rivals in order to settle a score or win new market share.

The last para is a bit of a non sequitur, as the whole article is about the threat of extortionate actions not by rival businessmen but by local authorities, who, if they had the interests of their community at heart, would be working harder to facilitate the opening of something that throws off as much money and jobs into the community as a large shopping mall.