RUSSIA

Just got back from Russia. A client that has many facilities throughout Europe is divesting one of their plants for pennies on the dollar, but needed some people they could trust to over see some maintenance activities at the facility they are working on selling. Being a risk taker I went for it because what they were offering us is about half our years total operating costs, which should translate into a good bonus. Also they have five other facilities that they employ us at and we don't want to jeopardize those by turning this job down and giving some favoritism to some other company that would do the work in our place.

Nobody talked about Ukraine unless it was open air area and we were one on one. I didn't ever ask, only responded if it was brought up. The message I got is that they compare it to our Viet nam in terms of being unpopular and pointless as well as a complete tragedy that they are embarrassed of. However no one will complain too loudly because they are afraid of consequences.

When the failed coup was happening and I was shitting my pants all day asking my coworkers if they could drive me to the Finnish border if shit really hit the fan, most of the local concern was that they didn't want to be drafted and fighting a civil war. There wasn't any support for the Wagner guys. I was told that Even though the situation in Russia is not great people are very worried that it could get worse if different factions controlled different areas etc. Currently Moscow keeps the trains running on time and the grocery stores full and that is most people's chief concern. Anyway I woke up the next day and the coup was squashed and I had 3 more days on the job and if needed a ride to Finland if things got wild again.

Some other concerns were that the locals were worried that once the facility was owned and operated by Russian big money guys that they would run it into the ground, pay people less and cut jobs.

I definitely got the feeling that although many companies have left Russia that the facilities that were quickly left behind like Coca Cola or other big major multinationals, may just be being run by shell companies with ties to the parent companies for the time being so that they can reclaim their market share when better days are here again.

Sanctions according to locals haven't affected their day to day lives in terms of getting food and gas etc. Mostly their complaint is that it makes leaders who are already mean angry assholes, even angrier and they lash out and clamp down at the citizens because they have nowhere else to vent their anger.

Outside of work their was zero friendliness and doing anything like buying groceries was a chore. I probably lost 15 lbs, which is pretty good because I was getting a little too thick around the edges anyway.

It's good to be home. I'm glad the job is over and that our client will be officially pulled out of Russia soon. I'm hoping that if the current regime falls it doesn't get replaced by something even worse, or worse yet Russia becomes several countries ruled by warlords with various access to nukes and an axe to grind with the EU , NATO and the west. I wouldn't go back if they paid us twice what they did this time.

All in this was one of the riskiest craziest things I have ever done in my life. I'm glad I have a story to tell and the I got back home safely.

mickeyrat · July 2023

https://twitter.com/igorsushko/status/1676098530606448640?t=Vp0VW9f3-qRzg_RJDl4rzw&s=19

mickeyrat · July 2023

https://twitter.com/JJintheUS/status/1675467490250326017?t=1NUjsXaKvXf2HtzISh8Hyg&s=19

mickeyrat · July 2023

https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1676933793435795458?t=tjrbvH0ebeO9B9z26W_fmw&s=19

mickeyrat · July 2023

https://twitter.com/Telegraph/status/1661040792624853000?t=JRXlcdKfe8rqxhLZbxVNAw&s=19

mickeyrat · July 2023

https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1677273690608746498?t=h0-U-R60YJwDL-C0zKthow&s=19

mickeyrat · July 2023

https://twitter.com/yasminalombaert/status/1676934560544587776?t=o_LgTLhhClXYL_Tf5Zvwog&s=19

mickeyrat · July 2023

https://twitter.com/igorsushko/status/1677150508824563712?t=YI7NpEpq-gyVDS_UliJPjg&s=19

Lerxst1992 · July 2023

mickeyrat said:

Lerxst1992 said:

So with the new Twitter limits, will this impact posts here?

going to guess, no.

scroll on by.....

free country and all.

It's a good service you provide, especially considering I canceled my nyt sub.

mickeyrat · July 2023

https://twitter.com/igorsushko/status/1677531264646262785?t=h3nb7xBaqSpJwH6dMLuKbg&s=19

Lerxst1992 · July 2023

static111 said:

Just got back from Russia. A client that has many facilities throughout Europe is divesting one of their plants for pennies on the dollar, but needed some people they could trust to over see some maintenance activities at the facility they are working on selling. Being a risk taker I went for it because what they were offering us is about half our years total operating costs, which should translate into a good bonus. Also they have five other facilities that they employ us at and we don't want to jeopardize those by turning this job down and giving some favoritism to some other company that would do the work in our place.

Nobody talked about Ukraine unless it was open air area and we were one on one. I didn't ever ask, only responded if it was brought up. The message I got is that they compare it to our Viet nam in terms of being unpopular and pointless as well as a complete tragedy that they are embarrassed of. However no one will complain too loudly because they are afraid of consequences.

When the failed coup was happening and I was shitting my pants all day asking my coworkers if they could drive me to the Finnish border if shit really hit the fan, most of the local concern was that they didn't want to be drafted and fighting a civil war. There wasn't any support for the Wagner guys. I was told that Even though the situation in Russia is not great people are very worried that it could get worse if different factions controlled different areas etc. Currently Moscow keeps the trains running on time and the grocery stores full and that is most people's chief concern. Anyway I woke up the next day and the coup was squashed and I had 3 more days on the job and if needed a ride to Finland if things got wild again.

Some other concerns were that the locals were worried that once the facility was owned and operated by Russian big money guys that they would run it into the ground, pay people less and cut jobs.

I definitely got the feeling that although many companies have left Russia that the facilities that were quickly left behind like Coca Cola or other big major multinationals, may just be being run by shell companies with ties to the parent companies for the time being so that they can reclaim their market share when better days are here again.

Sanctions according to locals haven't affected their day to day lives in terms of getting food and gas etc. Mostly their complaint is that it makes leaders who are already mean angry assholes, even angrier and they lash out and clamp down at the citizens because they have nowhere else to vent their anger.

Outside of work their was zero friendliness and doing anything like buying groceries was a chore. I probably lost 15 lbs, which is pretty good because I was getting a little too thick around the edges anyway.

It's good to be home. I'm glad the job is over and that our client will be officially pulled out of Russia soon. I'm hoping that if the current regime falls it doesn't get replaced by something even worse, or worse yet Russia becomes several countries ruled by warlords with various access to nukes and an axe to grind with the EU , NATO and the west. I wouldn't go back if they paid us twice what they did this time.

All in this was one of the riskiest craziest things I have ever done in my life. I'm glad I have a story to tell and the I got back home safely.

Wow, that's courage. Very interesting insights.

mickeyrat · July 2023

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1678294698228678656?t=LqT6IfyqfZvOvP8FVcKfZw&s=19

mickeyrat · July 2023

https://twitter.com/igorsushko/status/1678823094675468288?t=QyzZ_pvFJceEORrM6GEcbA&s=19

RUSSIA

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