RUSKIE: Beers, Bears & Babushkas

Ruskie: Beers, Bears & Babushkas Ruskie: Beers, Bears & Babushkas shows a picture of Russia, Russian Business and the Russian People as they really are. Admittedly, they don’t all drink copious amounts of Vodka but some of them do. Not all Russian women threaten to cut off their fingers as proof of their love for someone, then again some of them do. In general, Businessmen in Moscow don’t go around shooting their competitors in order to make sure their business succeeds, but, you guessed it, once again some of them still do! Matthew Francis, a young Englishman, arrives to set up a ‘Western Style’ consulting practice in Moscow and gives a hilarious account of the pleasures and perils of being a Brit in Russia. Faster than a Russian woman chasing a designer handbag, scarier than being threatened by the Moscow Mafia, and sexier than watching Maria Sharapova play tennis in her underwear. Or maybe not! One thing for sure, this is a story of the Real Russia, the Russia you definitely don’t read about in the newspapers!

Matthew Francis was born in Leicester, England, in 1975. He was trained as a Lawyer and from 1999 lived in The States for 2 years, working on some high profile tobacco litigation cases. He returned to the UK and in 2002, decided to set up a business in Russia. He then spent the next 5 years of his life, advising Russian companies on how to expand their operations into The West. He made a success of his own business, working with some of the world’s leading organizations, but his success was also his downfall. In 2007 he was threatened by one of his competitors and had to leave Russia. Although it all ended spectacularly, the experiences he had while living and working in this exciting and volatile environment have provided him with considerable experience in the area of Russian Business and Social Affairs. He now lives in Rugby, England and works as a Public Relations Consultant, working with Russian companies looking to set up their operations in The UK.

Anatoly was a typical Russian Businessman and as impressive a character as Vitaly had made him out to be. He was, I would say about forty years old, sharply dressed, walked with confidence and struck me immediately as somebody I would not want to cross in business. He was energetic and passionate about everything he did and he made sure that everyone was aware of the fact that this business was owned by him. After greeting me warmly he took me into what can only be described as a colossal office. It must have been over 40 feet long, had a large window, a large conference table and a large bookcase, full of large books. Basically everything in the room was large. This fitted in well I suppose, because at the end of the day, Anatoly was driven into his large company, in his large car and defnitely had a larger than life character to say the least! I was invited to sit down at the conference table and before we got around to speaking about any kind of business, Anatoly had a question for me. ‘Matu. You liked my secretary, Elena? She is new.’ he said. ‘Em, yes. She seems very nice.’ I replied. This was met with an almost comical look on his face as he decided to take the conversation a bit further. ‘She’s more than very nice Matu. She is incredible.’ Well I couldn’t argue with that one. But this was not actually what I was here to discuss. I felt a bit uncomfortable at his last remark if I was honest. I am sure a lot of bosses think their PA is rather attractive and certainly an asset to the business. I was not sure how many would actually say to someone they had never met before that she was incredible though. Again, perhaps it was just Anatoly’s level of English which had resulted in this comment. Although so far his knowledge of the language seemed pretty good. Anyway, I decided to ignore the comment and change the focus of the discussion a little. ‘So, does Elena speak much English?’ This was a reasonable question I thought and could only really be answered with a yes or no and we would then move on to business. Maybe not. ‘Don’t be silly. She can barely speak Russian. But to be honest, when you look like that, who cares?’