Unorthodox Guide to Business in Russia

Doing Business In Russia for the Non Expatriate 1st rough draft

Your the guy or gal that has been chosen to go to Russia to further your companies interests. Your not an expatriate, one who's destiny is to live and work in Russia, with the latter usually being secondary. You have been sent to sell, work on an existing project or work on the time honored feasibility study. Over the past seven years of doing business with Russians and in Russia I have been sent as a US based employee to conduct a wide variety of business in Russia. I have gone on trips that have lasted 5 days to trips that have lasted 2 months and have enough stories to keep several generations of family members busy for quite a long time.

Chances are that if your being sent to Russia your a person who thrives on chaos, you love solving problems and you can think on your feet without having to call the home office every ten seconds. You have probably been given a detailed account of your contacts by your employer, basically an account of what you should not screw up while your there.

Going to western europe for a couple of weeks is entirely different than transplanting yourself in Russia for two weeks. It has gotten much easier than it was in the early 90's, but chances are your not a linguist or a Russian cultural guru so there are probably a few tips that can help you. Think in terms of survival, the 1 in 1,000,000 scenario's, the "I have arrived at the airport and no one is here to pick me up. What do I do?" or my all time favorite "I am on a train, I have a heavy barreled assault rifle pointed at my head, do I conceal the fact that I actually have more money on me?" Half of your problems will be solved if you have good Russian or expatriate contacts that will have either planned your trip down to the finite second or at least gotten you to your hotel alive. Lets back up a bit.

On my first trip to Russia in 1993 I landed in St. Petersburg where I was immediately hit with, in essence, what I had expected, drab military uniforms, and allot of people blowing smoke in my face. What was then and is now the real trick is getting through customs without getting hassled. I am not embarrassed to say that I broke out in a cold sweat thinking that I was going to be sent to Siberia. The customs officer (one of 7 at the time) looked at me, my documents and let me pass. It was an unruly situation from the start with two Airbusses arriving at the same time and people picking up passengers all within the confines of a space no bigger than my local post office.

The airport in St. Petersburg has since changed and is actually more comfortable than many of the world largest airports. It's business lounge has very comfortable seats with as much free food and drink as you want. There is now a very nice duty-free shop as well as a mini mall for that last minute Spice Girl's CD. I also don't worry as much by being hassled by customs officials because I know the routine. I have been asked to pay special taxes on more than one occasion, but all went smoothly. Now days I'm a small fish and probably not considered worth the trouble. With all of the air freight coming in these days I'm sure there are much better pickings else where.

Rules for Dealing with Russian Customs:

1.    The Customs Officer is god.
2.    Act like you know what your doing even though you don't.
3.    Don't look like a nervous wreck, even though you have been flying for 18 hours and haven't had a good nights sleep in two days.
4.    Don't argue, ever.
5.    Be courteous at all times.
6.    The Customs Officer knows his job better than you do.
7.    Don't expect to be backed up by other Customs Officer's during a dispute which never should have happened in the first place..
8.    Most everything is negotiable.
9.    If you are bringing equipment into the country bring cash. (This so you don't have to pay a $3,000 import tax for 4 year old laptop computer.)
10. Don't ever complain unless you have allot of time on your hands.

You have landed, now get to work!

If your company has any idea what it is doing in Russia you will be walking into an alien work environment. What I mean is that going to Russia with the headstrong idea that you are going to conduct business as you normally do while your in the US is a ridiculous concept. Most US companies have opted for US mangers opening their offices, but if they have any sense what so ever the day to day duties shift as the company establishes itself toward a Russian partner or executive. This person can make your trip one of the easiest or one of the most unsuccessful trips that you have ever had. Even though your position in the hierarchical structure of the company may be higher than the office secretary don't expect people to jump when you need something done at first. Chances are that the many of your fellow Russian employees are going to ask for permission from the Russian partner or office manger to carry out your requests. This can be frustrating as hell, but remember that many of the employee's take their jobs seriously and literally can not afford to create any problems with the person who pays their salary. Unless your company is making direct deposits into everyone of your Russian employee's bank accounts from the US this means that there is probably a Russian accountant acting as paymaster who was hired by the Russian partner or office manager. Get the picture.

Make Friends:

I think that you would be socially defunct if you did not make at least one friend while you are in Russia. I have found that many people in Russia are very interested about the US and meeting foreigners. I would highly recommend that you become aquatinted with those who work in your office aside from the obvious, knowing your Russian "boss" from head to toe. This kind of information will help you in the future to determine skill levels and capabilities of those who work in your Russian office and may increase your own value to your company's Russian adventure. I usually like to take a more psychological approach in my dealings with people in general and I have found this strategy to my liking while doing work in Russia. Many of the Russian's that I have met are very well educated and some know US politics better than many Americans. I have had some very lively debates about world events, but I usually draw the line with Russian politics. I know that in my company that we have employee's of just about every political party in Russia and the last thing have wanted to do is impose a climate of hostility while socializing with fellow workers.

Organized Crime:

If your lucky you won't see it you'll only assume it. Back in the early 90's when there was much more lawlessness than there is today I remembered seeing allot of big guys sitting on top of Mercedes waiting outside of hotels for their bosses. I also remembered a "shake down" of local merchant one day. The term "Mafia" has many connotations. When watching the news in the US one would think that there is some kind of centralized body sending orders out to commit crime, but this is as ridiculous of an assumption for Russia as it is for the US. In the early 90's the "Mafia" may have had block by block control of cities in the sense that there were many different groups fighting for more territory. From what I can tell of the situation today it would seem that those who were strong enough early on consolidated their power. For the most part I would consider the "Mafia" to be a part of every part of Russian society from business, the police, the military to the political leadership. This does not mean that these organizations have hired killers waiting to kill you, sell drugs to you, and extort money from your company. In the early 90's it could have been defined by a person who had several banana stands in a city that was bribing the Tax Police so he or she would not have to pay high taxes.

I have been fortunate enough to never have had the experience with dealing directly with hard-core "Mafia" types and if you are asked by your company run for the hills. Any company that has to have an American deal directly with hard-core "Mafia" members probably has lousy Russian contacts and should consider rethinking the situation they are now in. If contacts with the "Mafia" are necessary American employees should be kept unaware of the relationship unless physical threats have been made against US personnel. If things got to that point then chances are someone was being unreasonable or someone really screwed up. Reprocucions can be extremely brutal for Russian employee's and depending on how bold the "Mafia" types are that are upset at your company the case for acts of brutality can be just a severe for US personnel.

It would seem to me that companies that are involved in physical commodities or companies that need to have an office or retail establishment with neon lights right in the middle of town are the most susceptible to the hard-core "Mafia" members. I know that some companies have offices way out in the suburbs of some cities because presence to the public is not necessary. In fact there are some that do not generate income in Russia at all!!! For the most part don't rely on getting information on crime in Russia from the US media or the US State department, both are clue less.

List of Things I Bring to Russia for a Short Trip 5 to 10 days (some items are obvious):

List of Things I Bring to Russia for a Long Trip 1.5 to 3 months:

1.    Passport
2.    Copies of your Passport
3.    Russian Visa
4.    Copies of your Russian Visa
5.    Plane Tickets
6.    Maps
7.    Several Bottles of Water
8.    Water purification tablets
9.    Flashlight
10.    Phone numbers of all of your Russian and American contacts.
11.    Phone numbers of the US Consulate or the Embassy in Moscow and map to each.
12.    Money belt.
13.    Arrive with $500 to $1,000 USD or German Marks
14.    Travelers Check (AMEX) $1,000 to $2,000, more if you are staying in a swank hotel and plan to go out at night.
15.    Russian phrase book
16.    Open up a bank account for money transfers from the states
17.    Bring a credit card (useful for stays in major Russian cities, worthless in the boonies. If you slap your hotel and some meals on this your
          cash will go much farther than expected)
18.    I brought a GPS (Global Positioning Satelight system) on my last trip which was over-kill, but it did help on several occasions.
19.    Bring cold and flue medicine, something for diarrhea and any other gastric problem that you can imagine.
20.    Bring a calling card (I use AT&T, they have a local office in St. Petersburg and Moscow, probably more).
21.    Bring snacks. I brought half a suitcase of snacks on one trip, primarily because I stayed a Soviet styled hotel that only served food at
          certain times of the day.
22.    Gifts, you would be surprised how long a box of shirts with your company logo on them will go.
23.    A really positive attitude that is ready for anything good or bad.
24.    Be prepared to buy little things like snacks, water and other things that you can't fit in your suitcase.

If you are gunning for the total experience and want to live in Russia FULL TIME click on some of the stories by St. Petersburg TIme's Staffer, Charles Digg's. It takes a special breed to live for years on end overseas. Good Luck in your travels.

1.    Easter Foils Train Bribe Attempt
2.    If You Want Power, Be a Conductor
3.    Mosquitoes: The Great Equalizer
4.    Tips To Lose Pesky Tourists
5.    More Than a Little Brotherly Love
6.    Look Out for Hi-Tech Babushki
7.    Perfectly Chivalrous Police
8.    'Tool Time' Russian Style
9.    Short Hair: Power in Russia

Comments to Joseph Hickman hickman@rain.org

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