Where has all the booze gone?
Big Bro AJ:
Just read this in the recent Exile, I think it solves the mystery of your missing Jack Daniels...
"Behind Russia's Dry Spell
"A few weeks, a month tops, and then the imported booze would start flowing again." That's what everyone assumed on July 1st, when the new excise law regulating imported booze came into effect and liquor shelves emptied overnight. Little did they know that the situation was much more fucked up...
That's because the new law didn't just call for a new excise tax sticker to be put on all wine and alcohol bottles. It was much bolder than that. It called for the most sophisticated government regulatory system than Russia has ever seen. one that would be able to track the history of every single bottle of booze in the country at any given moment. It also forced importers to buy the scanners and computers needed to upload information to a central system, bottle by bottle, for instant tracking.
The idea must have had Russian bureaucrats drooling; July 1st would be remembered as the day of Russia's first truly centralized database came online!
One thing they didn't expect is that the moment of their triumph would be labeled "Black Saturday." The day the good booze died. On that day, stores, restaurants and bars had to return their entire stock of imported alcohol to the wholesalers from which they bought them. Even now, more than a month after the new law took effect, the good shit is still nowhere to be seen.
Initially, we at Kompromat Korner thought conspiracy. There was just no way all that alcohol disappeared unintentionally. Russian alcohol manufacturers were the only guys in town that could supply the product, and they're making a killing. Someone must've been taking a cut of that action... But no. When the dust settled, it turned out to be much less interesting.
The law's intent was good enough. It was supposed to combat corruption and clamp down on excise avoidance. But just ask Chernomyrdin what happens when you try to make something better in Russia. This time, two familiar problems got in the way: incompetence and greed.
According to Bolshoi Gorod, the law was fast-tracked thru the Duma in order to keep up with the national ban on Moldovan and Georgian wine. To make matters worse, the contract to develop EGAYS (the database's acronym) was awarded to an FSB IT organization called Atlas. According to its website, Atlas had its hand in pretty much every electronic government system in the country since the 1950's.
Surprisingly, they managed to set it up. A month after the law came into effect, EGAYS is up and running, not smoothly, but still running. The problem is at the consumer level: it's almost impossible to obtain the hardware needed to plug into the EGAYS system. The problem is not so much that the Atlas-designed barcode scanners cost 50,000 euros as the fact that Atlas only employs two people for the entire Moscow region. Yep. Two people are qualified to install, certify and service the equipment for a city of 12 million registered hard drinkers. You do the math.
Vedmosti calculated that developing the database cost Atlas about $127 million. In return, it would make about $239 million annually from a fee built into the new excise law. Nearly a 100% return on investment isn't bad for a first year in business, doubly so for a government entity. But since it's got no fear of losing the contract, Atlas doesn't see any reason to share the wealth, or even work competently. So what if Russia's entire alcohol import industry hangs on by the skin of its delirium-tremens teeth.
According to industry insiders, the situation should resolve itself by the end of September. By then, they should have the bugs out of the tracking software and hardware and it'll be installed by all importers that haven't gone bankrupt. But here's the real kicker: when the imported booze does come back online, it may be 30% more expensive than before, since it'll be much harder to avoid the taxes.
Still, it could've been worse. The first draft of the new excise law called for the wholesale destruction of all alcohol tagged with the old excise stamps. 100-year-old cognacs, fine whiskies and vintage wines would have been bulldozed at a charge of 20 rubles per bottle to the paid to the Russian government."
Comprehensive description of Izmailovo Complex
Dear Friends,
I’ve seen that one of the most problems of all, when getting in Russia, is getting a fair price for an hotel. (and not only for that). Often central located rooms are priced ricoulously at 500/700 USD in a western five star, around 250/400 in a Russian run one. Even at the agencies the price are high. And it’s not only that. Monstrous telephone charges and crazy prices for everything. Last time I was at National, no Russian draught beer, only western, and 500 RUR (15.50 Euro!), just for a beer!! Somewhere it’s even worse.
Look at [url]http://www.tourintel.ru/online/gethotellist.asp[/url] it’s a post soviet tourist agency, and you can compare the prices, mind that company discounts for chains are much lower in Russia, specially in Moscow… so getting a Hyatt at 600/800 USD for a week, plus all extras, means that your bill will go around 5.500-6.500, not eating all the days at their restaurant, for a week. I have no economic problems, but I do not want to waste the money as a lot do in Moscow like 700 USD for an hotel room which should cost 200, 60 USD for a two way taxi to a restaurant, which should cost 15, and a meal for two for 200 USD! Or even worse 400 USD for two hour with a girl… for 500 USD you should get a real good night (12-14 hours) with a model type teen, nearly a Playboy girl!
So instead, taking down the cost on hotels, I prefer to take suites, fully equipped, at Izmailovo Delta-Gamma (approx 170 USD), but if you are on budget you can get doubles with queen bed for approx 70-80. Look at [url]www.izmailovo.ru[/url] , but never go in the cheap rooms… for DOGS!
You can buy the hotels both from Akademservice and Intourist (they both have an office in Delta lounge), and other agencies, but I recommend one of this two or directly the hotel in the site. Telephone is free (local) and international cheap, just give 1.000 RUR in deposit
Usually you get all the things you should get, even a PC and internet, a fax, and so on, except a minibar (they are just starting), you have to fill your own your fridge. But this is not a problem on ground the things I like, usually, are not in the normal fridges… like normal Russian beer, dried calamari or some salmon or even sausages, pickles, and some good vodka (Russian Standard Platinum or Stolichnaya Zavod Crystall), and some juice, and Borjomi, or Narzan or even Essentuki water.
Girls
So, first of all to get a girl up to you have to deal with security, between 7.00 to 23.00 they must let up anybody with proper documents (registered)… this is good so they will not steal anything from you… Otherwise, just give discretely a tip of 1.000 RUR (per girl, if you have two it’s 2.000) to the elevator guard. The best is to register the girl as a guest and pay breakfast… As I do with my sponsored ones, no problem…
So what you will find here in the area?
Izmailovo Gamma-Delta
A full of choice breakfast (but mind it’s not a five star, mostly Russian food) but if you want five fried eggs nobody will say anything. A good shop for filling the fridge (at the end of the Gamma Lobby), some cash machines, a good Sauna with pool (Gamma 6-16 Elevator Lobby), a couple of good bars where you can se the traffic in the Lobby (in total I think that bars and restaurants are more than 20), and the Amazonas and Pantera (24h) with nice food. Of course there are two Pharmacies, all Viagra, Cialis types, and at least 10 types of condoms (!!!).
Outside
Going in the metro station Partisanskaya direction you will find the Alfa on your left and the other two blocks on your left. There is a low building with shops.
Funny thinks, coming from Delta, the first is a Karaoke, perhaps the only bar in whole Russian Federation not serving (not always) vodka! But there is a real Pharmacy (with all you can need), and some food shops, good the red caviar, the salmon, and the smoked good, not, of course the black caviar, for 500 RUR, (they call it surogatiy, coming from Italian word, meaning fake). You will find also a change booth, and in the rear of it a sex shop, with big signs INTIM (a little bit expensive but…useful, especially for handcuffs and butt plugs… you do not want the customs guys to see them!). In the same little block there is a Sushi Restaurant, the best of the area. Expensive, but quite good. Last time I was there with Valentina.
If you go straight on you get to a small circular, with a dome, shopping complex, in the middle food shops, in the other corridors and at the 2nd floor clothe shops. Some of these are, I suppose, shops for girls working in Nights! ;) you will find the most crazy shoes like zebra made high heels, and so on, take you girl friend there! And have some fun in the night!! Like real Private Lap Dance (use the room table!
Vernissage
In the other direction you will find the vernissage, and then the market, I think you can go there and walk for a day without seeing the same things… Mind that the souvenirs are usually half price that in the city, and the shashlik is good…
Just go around… If you like markets, just go around and do not be afraid.
Girls Inside…
You can sure find some from the security staff in Delta-Gamma (100 USD/hour… too expensive)
There are some in the lobby (Delta-Gamma), nothing exceptional and no GFE at all, they have taximeter.
Admiral Night in Alpha hotel… not my style, just paying a lot for lap dances, I’m for fuck instead…
No live in the other three hotel blocks lobbies…
Note
If you get here you should have your own way to get girls… otherwise the security or the taxis, just in front of the Russian fast food near the metro will overcharge you monstrously. The chance to get a freebie is close to zero…
Note 2
Best option in Izmailovo is that you can go around the lobby, at a bar, or even at breakfast with a teen, with the risk of meeting a friend or a colleague! ;)
The business persons here are mostly Asian and Russian, very few Europeans, even if the hotel have all you need and you are in 20 min in the red square (by metro not by taxi).
But mind NEVER TAKE THE CHEAP ROOMS!!! FOR DOGS!!!
Bye
IT
ain't nuttin' fair 'bout nuttin'
IT Travel:
If I were a wh0re I would rather bang some guy in the Hyatt for $500 than travel all the way out to Ismailovo for $200. I think the reasons are obvious. C'est la vie.
I am absolutely with you in terms of trying to save money etc., but for the pros, there are definite advantages in seeking high-spending businessman clients on company accounts staying in luxury hotels vs. penny-pinching tourists who have to watch how much they spend. No offense, I also have to watch what I spend, even if in Moscow it is impossible to stay within budget.
Let's face it, there is nothing fair nor will there ever be anything fair about male-female, man-woman, boy-girl or wh0re-client relations.
I really apologize for repeatedly using the word wh0re, but sometimes that's exactly what they are.
As for regular girls, they by no means expect all foreigners to be rich guys staying at the Hyatt or SwissOtel or Kempinski or wherever, but guys with money definitely appeal to most girls in one way or another. In military geo-political terms we call it power projection, and cash allows you to project your power into most aspects of the inter-sexual game... image, presents, holiday trips, respect... cash goes a long way.
Those areas that are uninfluenced by relative wealth, such as honor, compassion, intelligence, dignity or personality... will often never even enter into the final score if you haven't at least got enough cash power to get your foot in the door.
I'm not trying to paint a bleak picture and have met dozens of girls whose primary interest is NOT money... honest girls who prefer romantic quiet cafes to expensive restaurants, don't mind riding the metro and like to spend evenings at home fucking a guy they really like to be with instead of going out to glam money-obliterating clubs to show off to their friends... but I have met many more who are obsessed with expensive clothes, holiday vacations and riding in style in the back of somebody's Merc. That's an international phenomenon, it is just more extreme in Moscow than most places, probably due to Russia's recent history and Moscow's spectacular wealth.
This obsession doesn't have to be our enemy though, in the end, it can be our friend.
In less-image obsessed societies such as Germany, it is a lot more difficult for guys 30+ years of age to find 18-20 year old girls willing to date/fuck them. In Russia, it's not difficult at all.
The glass isn't half empty, it's half full.
Just my 2 bits...
Dear Dr. Skank and most of all Dear Victoria
I can completely agree with you, but there is even other things… There are thousand and thousand of pros wh0res in Moscow… simply they can’t get all a “bed and fuck” in a western hotel. It’s a matter of statistics!
Of course You are right, but I must say that I’m trying to say the truth… the opposite as Victoria did in the last report here… look at the end… And I’m trying to respect anybody… and not say they that they are stupid and are foreigners and cant understand Russia…, Sorry but I think I do it more than most Russians. It’s not to be unfair, it’s just to look around.
Just for clarifying… for the same (ugly in my opinion) single at Kempinsky or Sheraton, you can get a nice and big suite at Sovietsky (approx 400-500 USD), why not. The atmosphere is completely different and you are not a Postal Wrapped Box from one room to the other, all exactly the same in all the world, with same breakfast, the same dessed guy, and the same smile saying you are welcome! The difference is that I easily can get a week (six nights) at Sheraton in Rio (I mean in Brazil) for 1.230 USD (Executive suite, with a nice view on the sea and on the strand, the only hotel on the strand in Rio, breakfast and all taxes included). In Moscow, and the Sheraton in Moscow is NOT located like the one in Rio, the same room (Executive suite, nice view on Tverskaya traffic) costs 3.480 USD (18% VAT excluded). No comment. Same buying system, same dates, low season for both.
The other thing is the perception you have with sponsored girls, is the same with wh0res, just a little bit different… They all drink energy drinks (! What hell do they think they do… they just give a lot of money to good marketing companies, yes they contain “taurin”, the teein in a dark Russian tea is surely more exciting); they all love sushi, but then you offer a sushi dinner… we can say 7.5/8.0 sushi quality, after two minutes they say it’s to much and they will be sick… Even worse if you try to get them to eat sashimi how it should be eaten… The answer will be immediately it’s frozen, It’s not fresh I can’t eat this. Coming from a couple of fisherman lands, I suggest that in most cases frozen is the most fresh fish… in any case this was not frozen.
The reality is simply that they do not like it (so I can eat two portions! ;) ) , they order it to be “a la page”, and it’s just that. Russia is a rich country, but money is divided in a very bad way. Young people seem that they have never been poor… I have been learned…, living in a “rich country”: “Take everything you want, but eat everything you take and think to people who can’t take anything”. I have never seen in my life wasting so much food like in Russia.
The incredible then is that no one knows where to buy real fresh caviar (I mean Ikra, unpacked, and boxed at the moment)… which is, as well known, the most luxurious food in the world… but it’s Russian. If it were German you can be sure there all will know where to buy it. By the way at the fish banks in the market (I can go there, but the address I suppose is in Malaja Pirogovskaja ul.) near the Novodevici monastery. Approx 2.300 RUR for 100 g for beluga not pasteurized. Less for others. The same with some Russian sweets and jams, absolutely at international standard… but they are Russian, not Trendy.
I know that this have nothing to do with hotel standards… but it takes out a mentality, a way of thinking. Quite different. Now I have money so I can waste it at all. You just need 10 minutes in the shopping mall in the manhez square for understanding this.
I have even some colleagues that are choosing restaurants on ground they are Trendy or not, it does not matter what you get in your plate, then they speak for hours to others telling a lot of things on the restaurant… lights, waiters, tables, service, decoration, noting on food!
I have a name… it’s simply called MTV generation (sorry to them it’s not their fault) generation. To seem not to be.
I think it’s all, I’ll not go longer in this kind of discussions… expressing no culture respect.
I will just sample here some of the things Victoria is saying… and I’m very sad for her.
"In June after your advertising, many guys called to me from this Hotel and asked to arrive girls. All have refused to go." Sorry for that, but first of all I do no advertising, then there are lots of agencies and girls happy to serve you in Izmailovo! By the way it's also perhaps I never by for the hour but only nights.
“…This Hotel is in the remote area of city…” Surely not true, 18 min with metro to Red Square, of course with the Moscow traffic 1 hour with taxi… I never use taxis in Moscow (just a couple of times in the last two-three years). I have no time for that, I’m not rich enough… I must work all the day, not sit in a bloody car stuck in a traffic congestion.
“…much Azerbaijanians live in this Hotel…” I’m not racist ! Perhaps its true, but most Azerbaijanians are working there, bars, cleaning, security, etc. The only people which I had problems, where drunk British (you know young college graduated going for an alcoholic vacation to Russia, with the cost of a Pint, you buy a bottle of vodka…) In any case too drunk to enjoy girls. Militia was taking care of them.
“People who trade in the markets, stop in This Hotel.” What’s wrong with this… so long they do not disturb customers and have money to pay the bill it’s OK. I have been trading too, not in the market, but, sincerely, I do not understand the difference.
“This Hotel not for international people, not for tourists too.” Sorry but is widely sold, in 1st class or even Business class room types, not standard ones, unrenovated since 1979. Good value for money, sold by the two biggest Russian tour operators, Akedamservice and Intourist (they both have offices there too). In summer it’s packed with tourist from all over Europe, I have personally seen lots of French, British, Italian, Spanish, Japanese and Americans, just for speaking on major countries.
“Even after repair This complex wishes to be better. Do not mislead guys. This Hotel-vestige of the past. Beside there is no good supermarket, only cheap tents with poor-quality alcohol.”
Sorry Victoria, but you are too young, in the past it was really bad… now, a part, is much better. In any case we need no supermarket… why should we? We are just living in a hotel. I can ensure you that the alcohol I drink usually is not stored in supermarkets, some times I find it, at (I use the old name) Gastronom n°1 (who knows Russia knows on what I’m speaking), or at the internal shop at Zavod Cristall… In any case the shpping centre with the dome, where you have “special” clothe shops, has a good sortment of any type of food, beware only on black caviar…
For making a long thing short… If I would like a nice dinner in Moscow I surely will not go to Marriot, Sheraton or whatever… but perhaps to the (small and romantic) mirror hall in Yar, or to the Central House of Writers (I can ensure you that the bill of the Kempinski covers just the aperitif), or even to a very good restaurant found on ul. Petrovka, just before the monastery on the opposite site. Wonderful fish and mushrooms! All is Russian.
Sorry if I’m a little bit cruel but I hate superficiality in such things…
IT