Routine extortion of businesses by Russian police & mafia

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
By FatCosmonaut

Hey Fatbaby Fans. FatCosmonaut here. Here to educate. Maybe you have heard what it is like to make games in Russia or Eastern Europe today. In case you haven\'t, I wanted to give you a glimpse of what it is really like to make videogames in Russia and the far Eastern frontier of videogame development in 2k1 A.D.


Pay-outs, police, and Russian profits

In my first months here I have been getting a crash course on how to conduct any business in Russia -- and it is nothing like I learned in International Business School, I assure you! In Russia, anytime money is being made by anyone or any company -- it quickly becomes the Russian game of contacts, influence, networks, bribes, power, mafia, & control. And I add pain and perhaps death to this list if you fail to play any part of this game properly.

If you want to make money here, (by any method from a humble fruit-stand to a massive oil refinery) you better be prepared to share it with a wide range of \"interested\" parties who don\'t have any creative energy themselves. So, these sharks prey all day on the entrepreneurs who do know how to make money in a capitalistic system. Demanding a payout for a variety of concocted and half-brained reasons. Security is one of my personal favorites. It\'s an old racket but a good one and I assure you it is alive and kicking here in Russia as we speak.


Adventures in Russian Capitalism

In Moscow business today, you have to regularly pay the Local Police (my GOOD buddies) to protect you from being raided and/or shut down by the --- local police!!! Huh?? How does that work?? OK, so then you have to pay the District Police to prevent the same fate from them! And I don\'t mean peanuts in these payouts -- you really have to pay these brainless bastards pretty damn well for all the \"security\" that they will provide for you each month!

The catch to the phrase is of course that you must pay everyone off as your security guards but the protection you are getting is from them! And don\'t be late with their monthly security payment, by the way.

The company I am with here came to work one day last year and noticed that ALL of their computers and equipment have been \"confiscated as evidence\" (read: outright stolen by the local police) in the investigation of fraud that had just been lauched against their company! In this case, getting your equipment back can take months and months and much more money that the monthly pay-off -- so, just pay it and be a good little Moscow businessman and make your monthly payments on time -- it will go much smoother for your business here in Russia.

But hey, joy of all joys, we still aren\'t through with our pay-outs for the month. There are still the tax police, the FSB (the former KGB), and the industry police! That takes care of the police for this month let\'s see what other fun we can find!

Oh, We still need to pay a nice fat chunk of change to at least 1 of the 5 very large and powerful Russian \"Private Security\" organizations. And if any of them are reading this then I\'m just kidding about all of this and I actually live in Canada right now!

CONTINUED NEXT UPDATE