Читать книгу Tough Business - Владимир Баранчиков - Страница 9

You may ask – well, where is the tough business, the mafia smacks? Standard work of an average firm. But don’t rush – I have a few trumps for you! Some of them I will post immediately, and some will be presented in the process of narration.

American criminologist economist Annilise Anderson from Stanford University is one of the leading foreign experts in the economic analysis of organized crime. Anderson formulates the following final definition:

– Mafia is a group that is characterized by profit—oriented criminal activity, the use of violence or the threat of violence, the use of a significant part of its resources to prevent its members from cooperating with the police, as well as corruption of legitimate state authorities.

I do not know the sources of the holding’s financial resources, the ways and methods of concluding profitable contracts, I do not disclose the names of foreign legal entities, the names of bank officers and their countries of deployment, with whom I personally had to communicate in the course of performing my daily duties. My functions did not include brute force techniques: shoot, punch someone in the face, give bribes, threaten – but I had no right to allow anybody to threaten me, because in this way they humiliated those who led me and questioned our independence and fearlessness. Without overestimating, I saw myself as a combat unit designed to make money legally or almost legally. For a more accurate description of the prevailing atmosphere, I must share a saying that exists in our environment:

– Who knows how, he earns money, who does not know how, he runs with a gun.

And there were undoubtedly such guys in our organization, given the fact that in those years the Holding was the largest and almost the only Chechen company in St. Petersburg that was trying to gain a foothold and expand its influence in the region. From the point of view of such a science as system analysis, in addition to the interaction of objects, there is also the resistance of the environment surrounding them, in this case – strong competition in the oil business. And it was necessary to defend and defend their interests. An additional circumstance was the national and status factor – both in the external environment and within our organization.

At the beginning of my activity, I had the opportunity to make an impression of the Chechen people by their young, well-educated and well-mannered representatives, whose parents held senior government positions in the Chechen Republic. My leaders taught me in my forties the courage of ideas, breadth of views, determination and firmness. For my part, I brought the technical competence and experience of the engineer with Voenmekh diploma, the ability to solve non-standard tasks, diligence and responsibility inherent in the military industry, the ability to establish contacts with people. Later I learned to speak the same language with both bandits and foreigners. I passed a kind of tests for professionalism and decency, and most importantly – the ability to remain silent. I had mistakes, and they didn’t pat me on the head for them, but they never humiliated my dignity as a subordinate and as a Russian by nationality. And there were many reasons for this, especially during the Chechen wars, when blood was shed, sometimes I heard emotional reproaches from people who survived this hell. However, my position has always remained unchanged – I serve, but I do not humiliate myself. I did not try to learn the Chechen language, because in this way I left communication free for their native speakers. From time to time it was necessary to defend the right to historical, not «national» truth. Any national tragedies are terrible, but I also had irrefutable arguments – my relatives survived the blockade… Later I talked with Chechens of different ages, status and beliefs, and once again I was convinced that the more ardent nationalism (not to be confused with national pride) and hatred of the Russian world in a person, the lower his intelligence, no matter how many academic degrees were indicated on his business card. On the other hand, their national characteristics and traditions have always created an undeniable advantage when uniting in the fight against an external enemy, since their fighting qualities are honed in the family since childhood, boys become men capable of standing up for themselves, and for their family, and for their kind (teip), and for their land.

Nevertheless, the difference in age and mentality still affected. There were times when I did not understand someone from the authorities, and they did not understand me. A typical example from life. The president calls to me, and there are five people in relaxed poses.

– Do you sell diesel fuel for Russian supplies. And how?

I answer that buyers are interested in the product quality passport.

– And why do you need a passport if there is GOST (Russian standard)? – someone from the audience asks rather sharply with a slight accent.

I calmly explain that GOST 305—82 «Diesel fuel» specifies ranges of values of controlled parameters – cetane number, water content, flash point and so on. The buyer is usually interested in specific quantities: sulfur, mechanical impurities and other characteristics. After the explanation, silence reigned in the office. And this is not the main argument. Well, I won’t tell them directly that this is how those who are far from the supplier sell most often, in fact it is «air», and I earned my reputation with blood and everyone takes my word for it. You’re suggesting that I become Baron Munchausen and undermine the reputation of the firm. But sometime it’s been tougher:

– Call London and tell them that we will have twenty thousand tons of something soon…

The Englishman, stunned by the news, asks me a hundred questions in his native language, to which I have no answer – both in fact and because of the limited vocabulary. What should I do?

– Be patient, Cossack, you will be ataman!

But I also have a personal limit, my own border, which I cannot cross. Once we signed a contract with Gazprom, and the boss asked me to sign a contract on the terms of deferred payment. This meant that it was good for our company, but for me it was a personal responsibility worth millions of non-Russian rubles. I had a choice – to accept the offer and agree, show loyalty, and then suffer for a long time, bearing the burden of moral responsibility (there were examples), or refuse and have a loss of perspective and trust of the leadership, but sleep peacefully. I chose the latter, had a tough one-on-one conversation and disappointed the president with my «no» and «I can’t». But I did not overstep himself, my experience and my beliefs. But I did not become rich either – I say for those to whom I seemed a proud hero in the description of my actions. I think a more accurate term is Don Juan’s definition of «controlled stupidity,» which Carlos Castaneda wrote about.

And here is the first trump card in favor of our selectivity and strength. Actually, many of our compatriots could find out about our valiant team on December thirtieth, 1993 at ten p.m, after watching an hour-long program called «Evening Concert» on the channel «Russia». As the notorious Fantomas used to say:

– Even a great man is nothing without the press.

Following this principle, the financial association «Holding» announced its existence to the whole country: this is evidence of the high ambitions of his leadership, inherent in truly powerful structures.