ëb tvoju mat'!
August 6, 2000 10:35 AM Subscribe
Here's an attempt to put some context to the link in question.
You'll never prove anything I write here. I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about and you really shouldn't believe me. I'm just writng fiction. I'm full of it. Don't believe a word. These two guys used to run a major vodka corporation in Russia, which is owned 51% by the gov't. Sounds like the gov't is moving their shares of stock into a holding company and these two guys want to jockey for position of control should it ever fall out of the gov't's hands. So. One of them thought he was in charge but the other one had him ousted through political underhandedness. The guy didn't show up for the meeting where they were gonna put the nails in his coffin. Instead, he got a hold of some buddies wearing camoflage and carrying lethal hardware and with a small army he stormed the vodka castle.Took the company by brute force and claimed he was operating in the interests of the Russian gov't. So the other guy got his own army and they squared off on the premises of this vodka company, and now they're basically fighting over pieces of property, as if the vodka plant were a small country.
Wait. It gets better.
This would be like if all the companies who claim to own rights to the Marvel Spider-Man movie were to resolve their dispute not in court but with raw firepower on the streets of Manhattan. It's exciting and stupid and illegal, but Russia's been in the hands of organized crime since before the fall of the Iron Curtain. It's just getting harder and harder for them to keep other forces in line, or hide the truth. Some claim it was the switch to democracy which caused the former soviet union to become corrupt. Nope. Sorry. That'd be like saying America used to be corrupt but we cleaned up our act when Reagan became president. Both countries are corrupt, been corrupt, and probably in one way or another always will be corrupt. Seems to be a natural side-effect of humanity: certain individuals MUST make things better for some and worse for others, and it all has to do with money and property and land and ownership and all that good stuff. This has been going on since before the fall of the Czar. When the communists took over, the Union quickly became run by a corrupt socialistic government which kept claiming to treat everyone equally. Those in power would get first pick of all goods, and they would decide who would be able to get what when. Money mattered, as did power and influence, and much of this was orchestrated and implemented by those now running the 'black market' today. The masses got the scraps, which is why there were long lines and exhorbitant prices for toilet paper. Okay. I'm oversimplifying it, but that's the gist of how it went. When "communism" fell (USSR was never communism. It was socialism. Big difference. You can't have true communism so long as human beings are running things), the need for pretenses and appearances began to break away, but there was also a loss of protection. The new gov't could not claim public connection with anything that had been placing and was continuing to place importance on those with money over those without. I mean, you're never going to find proof to anything I just described above. I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about and you really shouldn't believe me. I'm just writng fiction. I'm full of it. Don't believe a word. Some of those who really made the Soviet Union fall by perpetuating aristocratic inequality are now disavowed. So the soviet answer to economic supply and demand had to go underground and metamorphosize. It's turned into what we recognize in the states as organized crime. Mob rule. Closed door agreements. Family trust pacts. Armed control of supply routes so what is available stays in the hands of those in the family. Vodka is a hot commodity worldwide. He who controls that has a lot of power. During the cold war russian subs used to trade vodka with american naval officers for stuff like chocolate and other american supplies. Besides the obvious legal uses, vodka has a lot of other uses too. What concerns me (besides my personal access to good vodka) is that this is not an isolated incident. I bet if we did some digging, we'd find this violent attempt at mutiny within corporate Russia is becoming more and more common, where words and coolheads give way to muscle and firepower. This doesn't make them much different from the drug cartels in colombia or mexico. No peace. No justice. No future. Of course nothing I just said is true. Makes for great fiction, though doesn't it?
posted by ZachsMind at 12:25 PM on August 6, 2000
You'll never prove anything I write here. I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about and you really shouldn't believe me. I'm just writng fiction. I'm full of it. Don't believe a word. These two guys used to run a major vodka corporation in Russia, which is owned 51% by the gov't. Sounds like the gov't is moving their shares of stock into a holding company and these two guys want to jockey for position of control should it ever fall out of the gov't's hands. So. One of them thought he was in charge but the other one had him ousted through political underhandedness. The guy didn't show up for the meeting where they were gonna put the nails in his coffin. Instead, he got a hold of some buddies wearing camoflage and carrying lethal hardware and with a small army he stormed the vodka castle.Took the company by brute force and claimed he was operating in the interests of the Russian gov't. So the other guy got his own army and they squared off on the premises of this vodka company, and now they're basically fighting over pieces of property, as if the vodka plant were a small country.
Wait. It gets better.
This would be like if all the companies who claim to own rights to the Marvel Spider-Man movie were to resolve their dispute not in court but with raw firepower on the streets of Manhattan. It's exciting and stupid and illegal, but Russia's been in the hands of organized crime since before the fall of the Iron Curtain. It's just getting harder and harder for them to keep other forces in line, or hide the truth. Some claim it was the switch to democracy which caused the former soviet union to become corrupt. Nope. Sorry. That'd be like saying America used to be corrupt but we cleaned up our act when Reagan became president. Both countries are corrupt, been corrupt, and probably in one way or another always will be corrupt. Seems to be a natural side-effect of humanity: certain individuals MUST make things better for some and worse for others, and it all has to do with money and property and land and ownership and all that good stuff. This has been going on since before the fall of the Czar. When the communists took over, the Union quickly became run by a corrupt socialistic government which kept claiming to treat everyone equally. Those in power would get first pick of all goods, and they would decide who would be able to get what when. Money mattered, as did power and influence, and much of this was orchestrated and implemented by those now running the 'black market' today. The masses got the scraps, which is why there were long lines and exhorbitant prices for toilet paper. Okay. I'm oversimplifying it, but that's the gist of how it went. When "communism" fell (USSR was never communism. It was socialism. Big difference. You can't have true communism so long as human beings are running things), the need for pretenses and appearances began to break away, but there was also a loss of protection. The new gov't could not claim public connection with anything that had been placing and was continuing to place importance on those with money over those without. I mean, you're never going to find proof to anything I just described above. I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about and you really shouldn't believe me. I'm just writng fiction. I'm full of it. Don't believe a word. Some of those who really made the Soviet Union fall by perpetuating aristocratic inequality are now disavowed. So the soviet answer to economic supply and demand had to go underground and metamorphosize. It's turned into what we recognize in the states as organized crime. Mob rule. Closed door agreements. Family trust pacts. Armed control of supply routes so what is available stays in the hands of those in the family. Vodka is a hot commodity worldwide. He who controls that has a lot of power. During the cold war russian subs used to trade vodka with american naval officers for stuff like chocolate and other american supplies. Besides the obvious legal uses, vodka has a lot of other uses too. What concerns me (besides my personal access to good vodka) is that this is not an isolated incident. I bet if we did some digging, we'd find this violent attempt at mutiny within corporate Russia is becoming more and more common, where words and coolheads give way to muscle and firepower. This doesn't make them much different from the drug cartels in colombia or mexico. No peace. No justice. No future. Of course nothing I just said is true. Makes for great fiction, though doesn't it?
posted by ZachsMind at 12:25 PM on August 6, 2000
Oh you're just upset because I left out the prostitutes with no teeth.
posted by ZachsMind at 3:41 PM on August 6, 2000
posted by ZachsMind at 3:41 PM on August 6, 2000
that link translated in babelfish says "to tvozhu of mat ' "
hmmmm
posted by starduck at 4:10 PM on August 6, 2000
hmmmm
posted by starduck at 4:10 PM on August 6, 2000
I don't think ZachsMind need ever worry about providing enough 'context' . . .
posted by aladfar at 8:40 PM on August 6, 2000
posted by aladfar at 8:40 PM on August 6, 2000
I would really hate to have people who actually rely on babelfish, someone's gonna end up declaring war on someone...
posted by starduck at 9:05 AM on August 7, 2000
posted by starduck at 9:05 AM on August 7, 2000
Vodka... bleah. Let me introduce you to my porcelain god. We shared a few moments last Thursday, if you know what I mean.
posted by evilmaryellen at 9:26 AM on August 7, 2000
posted by evilmaryellen at 9:26 AM on August 7, 2000
Vodka is water compared to the cause of my last talk on the ceramic phone. Chartreuse
is pure evil.
posted by viama at 7:53 AM on August 9, 2000
is pure evil.
posted by viama at 7:53 AM on August 9, 2000
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posted by ZachsMind at 11:17 AM on August 6, 2000