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How to steal a Russian airport
- osipov 15y agoIt should be noted that the private owners of the airport must have an excellent PR firm to get NY Times to write a favorable article. In "The Submarine" essay PG mentioned that his firm never managed to get a NYT article.
- gaius 15y agoThe BBC has been writing similar articles recently http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2586983 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2586983
- osipov 15y agoRight, Bill Broder, the Hermitage Capital guy has been speaking up recently as well. There is going to be economic forum in St. Petersburg in 2 weeks. It is typical to see an up tick in these types of articles before major public events in Russia.
- parfe 15y agoI would hardly call the article favorable. Sure it says the airport is well run and profitable, but that is just an example of how the Russian government will step in and steal . Not exactly a ringing endorsement for investment.
- osipov 15y agoTrue, this is not a story about generating investment interest but about attracting attention to the issue and painting the government as a villain. The story is favorable because it leads the audience to pre-judge the situation in favor of the current airport owners.
- bxr 15y ago>PG mentioned that his firm never managed to get a NYT article. At the same time though, this is an airport and government bullying, not some tech startup. I know we have our heads deep in this tech world, but come up for air for a minute and see that the differences in topic area might have had some kind of influence too.
- eli 15y agoYou would not even consider it might just be a good example of the point the columnist is trying to make?
- hammock 15y agoIt's an op-ed, not an article. A little bit easier to get.
- jamesaguilar 15y agos/must/may/, or maybe the author is interested in the state of Russia as indicated by his earlier article on the subject.
- gcv 15y agoJoe Nocera has written quite a few opinion columns about Russian politics, including a couple about Khodorkovsky. Looks to me like he's just interested in the subject.
- savramescu 15y agoThe attitude in communist countries after the Fall resembles so much to the one in "Atlas Shrugged" that it's scary. Goverment really is one big thug who will only steal. Nice countries, but it's a shame that there are people living in them. I should know. I live in one.
- dorian-graph 15y agoThat's what I was thinking too. What will they do when they true business men run off? Who will they loot then?
- osipov 15y agoThey don't need true business men when the oil is flowing.
- dorian-graph 15y agoHave you read Atlas Shrugged?
- _delirium 15y agoIn a lot of cases the "true business men" having their property confiscated by the government aren't much better, mostly being cronies of either a current or previous government themselves, or connected with organized crime. It's not like Russia's oligarchs suddenly sprouted business empires over the course of a few years through entrepreneurship and hard work. I tend to see it as basically conflicts within the ruling elite; sometimes one faction is in government, and sometimes another faction is, and stuff gets shadily privatized or shadily re-nationalized depending on how those power struggles ebb and flow.
- dorian-graph 15y ago.. and hopefully this is the last time I'll need to clarify this. My comment was in relation to Atlas Shrugged and unless you've read the book, you won't necessarily understand what I mean by looters and the like.
- tomelders 15y ago2 legs good, 4 legs bad.
- tomelders 15y agono George Orwell fans on HN then? I personally see too many parallels between Russia's versions of Communism and Capitalism. It doesn't matter how they dress it up, the ruling class are still abusing their positions and calling it progress.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- oceanician 15y agoSo, whilst those moan at UK politicians, at least they're not as bad as this crazy mob. Quite shocking really!
- nitrogen 15y agoArguments of the form, "It could be worse," unfairly dismiss actual problems that need actual solving.
- oceanician 15y agoSure - there's a lot of problems that need fully debating and solving. I'd agree with that. Wonder if there's a list someplace... i.e. solve malaria, distribute food in africa etc etc
- pessimist 15y agoThe article claims that this is the reason Russia has so little innovation. Is this really true though? Yandex is a great company. VKontakte is dominating social networking there. Russian investors (or at least Yuri Milner) appear to be doing extremely well.
- illicium 15y agoI wouldn't consider VKontakte to be much of an innovator, considering it essentially is a clone of Facebook.
- MrVitaliy 15y agoThe only innovative company in my view is ArtLebedev studio (which does all the UI/graphics design for Yandex and probably sole reason for their success) and most people who work there clearly see the same picture and hate it, albeit not as vocally. Yuri Milner - CEO and Managing Partner of DST (Digital Sky Technologies) is doing well because DST invests heavily outside of Russia, namely they are one of the largest institutional shareholders of Facebook.
- rorrr 15y agoYandex = copy of other search engines (mostly google) Vkontakte = direct ripoff of facebook What's the innovation?
- guard-of-terra 15y agoHaving local search engines, mapping services, dominating webmail platforms and multiple social networks is itself an innovation. Innovation might happen when you have those, it would obviously never happen if you don't. Few countries, mostly asian, dare to sustain that. Rest of the world can not.
- rorrr 15y agoCopying is innovation? Innovation = new idea, new method, new product. Sorry, your argument is bullshit.
- CWuestefeld 15y ago(sorry if this is another one of those "the USA is just as bad", posts, but I hope it's food for thought) It sometimes seems to me that the real difference between stories like this and what we see in the USA is that in the States we've learned to be more subtle about it. I offer three examples of how USA government disrespect for the rule of law is stifling America: 1. Kelo decision: it seems to have become routine for cities to condemn viable small businesses to grab land for their big voters. For example, see Columbia University in NYC. 2. GM bailout: standard bankruptcy law, determining who should get paid, was thwarted to give unions (i.e., Democrat voting blocks) favored status. This creates disincentive for future investment. 3. Boeing's new plant: the government is trying to block Boeing from moving a plant from Washington to S. Carolina, saying that their action is intended to avoid organized labor (duh), and that's illegal.
- johngalt 15y agoI don't see it as a "USA is bad" post. Quite the opposite. It's a validation of what this country was founded upon. American exceptionalism isn't that people here are incorruptible. It's that we decided wherever possible to avoid creating positions of power and influence. Precisely because it's assumed that those positions will be abused. Making sure that there are explicit limits when those positions are necessary. The fact that we've seen this behavior "even here" should make people realize how right the founding fathers were about the nature of power and governance. Even the idea of having a national standing army was considered risky back in the day.
- mapgrep 15y agoThe Kelo decision was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court following an appeal of a decision in the same direction by the Supreme Court of Connecticut. The Boeing lawsuit is being brought in federal court by the National Labor Relations Board and remains undecided. It will be subject to the full appeals process like any other court case. I find it odd you are citing these as "examples of how USA government disrespect... the rule of law." Could you elaborate?
- CWuestefeld 15y ago