Moscow

[QUOTE=Acolonizer]Hi! Who knows which bank is most reliable to open a bank account in Moscow?

Could anybody help us?

PM accepted.

Thanks[/QUOTE]Sberbank, Raffaisen and VTB24 seem to be still ok.

[QUOTE=Doctor_Skank]Thanks for your insight fellas!

BTW: High oil prices ARE my business. The higher oil goes, the better I do. I don't see recovery as quickly as some of you do however, as low resource prices aren't the only factor blocking growth/recovery right now.[/QUOTE]The low oil price will remain for a long time because the sales to China have been reduced and it has happened because the buyers have lost their confidence in the cheaply produced through outsourcing chinese products.

So the roots of the crisis are deep and till the people gain again confidence in the quality of products they buy,the situation will continue like this with valuable russian oil turning into shitty chinese products.

In order to improve the trust to products,the production has to shift again to reliable countries like Germany(which will produce with help of russian resources) and this is the plan that Germans and Putin try to reinforce but US and UK oppose.
Only then will be the russian oil valuable again and the russian dominance in Siberia and Far East gueranteed(which guarantees the wealth through availability of resources secured through military presence).

The only viable senario for the West to be impoverished while russian economy flourishes is the deepening of this russian-german axis and its communication far above the common decision makers(of course a senario which provokes or sets war as a probable means or consequence).

The Germans are probably not ready to accept the russian bear in such a degree but they do not want to see it weakening either and play the US game.So there are balances and this means that the exodus from the crisis will be very slow and painful and with setbacks.

Of course what concerns us is the attitude of debuskas and how it is affected by the oil prices.

I have seen posts here that there have been isolated occasions where people have heard disparaging remarks about VVP (Vladimir Vladimirovich). But I didn't know about these sort of demonstrations.
[url]http://news.bbc.co.uk/mobile/bbc_news/world/europe/786/78623/story7862370.shtml[/url]
Does anyone know if these are just isolated incidents and the stirring of political unrest by rival political parties or is there something to this?

[QUOTE=Roger Mellie]The Russian economy is completely different. Its underpinned by oil, gas, and increasing steel, nickel, gold, palladium etc exports. These are not whimsical items like tulips or ivory ... there was and always will be essential global demand for those products. [/QUOTE]I don't agree. Look at Japanese real estate bubble back in 90s. There were real demands for those lands and apartments because japan is so crowded. Like any limited resources, whether its fundamental or whimsical, its price went through the roof when they were buying real estates and houses like crazy. But, when it was too much, the bubble popped and still has not recovered.

A cousin of mine who worked at Goldman Sachs told me that those oil prices were pumped up by investment banks and hedge funds because they knew they were making a sure bet and they did make money while it lasted, rather than backed by real demands. They were buying back and forth between them to raise price. They simply had too much money in their hands and looking for any places to put their money. After IT and Mortgage back security (many people inside knew it was failing). So, they needed new bubbles, they were oil and other future goods. So, it was a bubble.

My point is. Although oil and other fundamental goods have real demands, its price might not come back up any time soon because investment banks and hedge fund have lost too much money this time and have no money to play with. So, the oil price is now upto real demands from the world economy. And like many people said already, it is a dark tunnel with no lights in sight.

I envy you guys in the candyland. And hope you enjoy the good time. (or bad time for devs.)

Hecker,

It seems Germans are trying to conquer the world again. Before, years ago, joint ventures between German and American companies, such as Mercedes / Chrysler; now British economy are going very down and they need Euro; in the future Russians will work for Germany: is it time to learn German language too?

About Moscow facilities.

It is not fast to find past information by the thread search tool in this forum. Therefore I beg for your help about:

- Where are the most important Internet centers / cafes in the center of Moscow?

- Where are the biggest supermarkets and shopping centers in the center of Moscow?

- Which are the most reliable agencies to rent a flat in the center of Moscow?

Thanks

[QUOTE=Acolonizer]About Moscow facilities.

It is not fast to find past information by the thread search tool in this forum. Therefore I beg for your help about:

- Where are the most important Internet centers / cafes in the center of Moscow?

- Where are the biggest supermarkets and shopping centers in the center of Moscow?
[/QUOTE]First of all, define "center". Most expats/mongers think the center is Tverskaya ul between Pushkin Square and Red Square, which is about a 15 minute walk and really only a tiny part of the center... whereas most Russians define the center as anything inside the garden ring. Moscow is huge, if you haven't been there before it is much much larger than Kiev for example.

Internet: take your laptop to a bar or cafe and use their free wifi. If you really need an internet cafe try CafeMax near Novoslobodskaya Metro.

Shopping for food: Eliseev shopping center near Pushkin Square for the experience and any Sedmoi Kontinent chain store or similar for actual shopping at affordable prices. Neither place is good for pickups however.

Shopping for goods: Manezhnaya Mall on Red Square, TSUM on Neglinaya or GUM near Red Square or Atrium near Kursky train station/Zemlenoy Val. There is no shortage of shopping opportunities in Moscow.

Agencies: google "moscow apartment short-term"[QUOTE=Jake993]I have seen posts here that there have been isolated occasions where people have heard disparaging remarks about VVP (Vladimir Vladimirovich). But I didn't know about these sort of demonstrations.
[url]http://news.bbc.co.uk/mobile/bbc_news/world/europe/786/78623/story7862370.shtml[/url]
Does anyone know if these are just isolated incidents and the stirring of political unrest by rival political parties or is there something to this?[/QUOTE]AFAIK isolated and largely stirred by political groups with little support.

Roger Mellie, man who watches too much Russian telly ;)

Your argument that Russia's long term boom is assured because of the inherent value of raw materials in the ground is one you could pretty much apply to most African countries. God (or fossils and meteor bombardment) put those minerals there, and this 'wealth' has nothing to do with the Russians' ability to manage companies, invest or protect capital (particularly when it's owned by foreigners) or adopt an even vaguely standard international approach to doing business.

The upshot of these discussions so far is that Russia is essentially a banana republic that can't grow bananas (that's one Jim Rogers should use).

Also I can assure you that no graduate trainee in any sector has ever, or ever will (in today's money) earn 100k $/£/EUR, right here in central London, where we've had multimillion pound properties for far longer than Moscow. Russian companies' desire to pay this kind of money shows they essentially have no idea what they're doing. It's this kind of (lack of) thinking that turns booms into frenzies and busts into riots.

The high price of oil was an interrogation light that simply blinded people. Now some vision is returning.

Here's an interesting one: if you wanted to bet on Russia recovering, would you buy the Russian stock market index or a generalised global commodity index?

The question is rhetorical of course, and the answer simply reflects the fact that the world's juciest pile of goodies in buried in the ground of the world's worst run economy.

[QUOTE=Doctor_Skank]There IS a crisis and either you are just keeping an overly optimistic stiff upper lip or are incredibly naive[/QUOTE]

Give her a break Skank, she needs to sell her overpriced hos :)

[quote=redpirateship]
a cousin of mine who worked at goldman sachs told me that those oil prices were pumped up by investment banks and hedge funds because they knew they were making a sure bet and they did make money while it lasted, rather than backed by real demands. they were buying back and forth between them to raise price. they simply had too much money in their hands and looking for any places to put their money. after it and mortgage back security (many people inside knew it was failing). so, they needed new bubbles, they were oil and other future goods. so, it was a bubble.
[/quote]red - thanks for sharing the info from your cousin. i have always suspected something like that was going on but not being a wall street insider, i had no way to confirm what we were seeing. as a 25+ veteran of the oil industry, i can tell you without hesitation that i have (just about) seen it all. i have survived $10 a barrel and have been drunk with euphoria over $147. but once the glamor is scraped away, the fact remains that oil (and gas of course) is just a commodity business. and like all commodities is subject to speculation over future demand. $40 a barrel today is not any more "real" than $147 was last summer.

i'm just speculating on what the speculators will do (dangerous practice) but i think with so much less cash floating around looking for a place to go, oil speculation has fallen from fashion and once the current cheap oil contracts have run through the system, the price will follow real supply and demand for a while. and that's the part no one really knows. will it be $50 or will it be $90?

the regan administration made a deal with saudi arabia to flood the market with cheap abundant crude (and we all know why) and the result was $10 - $20 a barrel until about 2002 - 2003. it wasn't pretty but oil companies learned how to survive and make money at those prices. somewhere along the way, that demand driven by cheap oil out stripped the world's ability to find and produce more of it. when russia got it's o&g act together it was able to join a rising tide and a rising price. money was pouring in faster than anyone could spend it. by july 2008, oil and gas accounted for over 80% of russia's export revenue. but slash the cash coming in by 60% and guess what happens? russia's booming economy had little to do with it's ingenuity and its powers of innovation. it was the beneficiary of rising commodity prices like saudi arabia, kuwait or venezuela.

in reality, there is little russia can do but sit and wait for the commodity to go up in price. not to be cruel, but without high oil prices russia is very limited in its ability to control its own destiny. if europe ever gets it's act together and build the nabuco pipeline, russia's natural gas leverage over europe will dissipate faster than a fart in a windstorm. did you know that 80% of all the gas that flows to europe from russia through ukraine actually comes not from russia but from turkmenistan? get out your map and digest that for a minute - see any patterns? see any alternatives?

but i digress - sorry for the soapbox speech. lucky for russia, the oil price will rise soon. it has to. the world cannot break it's addiction to oil in time to avoid another price run up. futures contracts apply for only a fixed time and what self respecting commodities trader can resist jumping on a trend?

i suppose the other thing we can't know is, once oil prices go back up, how long will it take for that money to filter through the russian economy and get back into the hands of upwardly mobile consumers? with the government in control of russia's largest oil and gas producer and with a 65% tax on revenues of private companies like lukoil, my guess is that it will not take long at all.

how do you say government bailout in russian?

and, more important, how long will it take for p4p in russia (well, moscow anyhow) to hit new heights?

[QUOTE=Ash1001]Here's an interesting one: if you wanted to bet on Russia recovering, would you buy the Russian stock market index or a generalised global commodity index?
[/QUOTE] That's a hell of a question. Any idea who trades in the Russian Stock Market? Is it individual investors or largely institutional investors?

[quote=jake993]red - thanks for sharing the info from your cousin. i have always suspected something like that was going on but not being a wall street insider, i had no way to confirm what we were seeing. as a 25+ veteran of the oil industry, i can tell you without hesitation that i have (just about) seen it all. i have survived $10 a barrel and have been drunk with euphoria over $147. but once the glamor is scraped away, the fact remains that oil (and gas of course) is just a commodity business. and like all commodities is subject to speculation over future demand. $40 a barrel today is not any more "real" than $147 was last summer.

i'm just speculating on what the speculators will do (dangerous practice) but i think with so much less cash floating around looking for a place to go, oil speculation has fallen from fashion and once the current cheap oil contracts have run through the system, the price will follow real supply and demand for a while. and that's the part no one really knows. will it be $50 or will it be $90?

the regan administration made a deal with saudi arabia to flood the market with cheap abundant crude (and we all know why) and the result was $10 - $20 a barrel until about 2002 - 2003. it wasn't pretty but oil companies learned how to survive and make money at those prices. somewhere along the way, that demand driven by cheap oil out stripped the world's ability to find and produce more of it. when russia got it's o&g act together it was able to join a rising tide and a rising price. money was pouring in faster than anyone could spend it. by july 2008, oil and gas accounted for over 80% of russia's export revenue. but slash the cash coming in by 60% and guess what happens? russia's booming economy had little to do with it's ingenuity and its powers of innovation. it was the beneficiary of rising commodity prices like saudi arabia, kuwait or venezuela.

in reality, there is little russia can do but sit and wait for the commodity to go up in price. not to be cruel, but without high oil prices russia is very limited in its ability to control its own destiny. if europe ever gets it's act together and build the nabuco pipeline, russia's natural gas leverage over europe will dissipate faster than a fart in a windstorm. did you know that 80% of all the gas that flows to europe from russia through ukraine actually comes not from russia but from turkmenistan? get out your map and digest that for a minute - see any patterns? see any alternatives?

but i digress - sorry for the soapbox speech. lucky for russia, the oil price will rise soon. it has to. the world cannot break it's addiction to oil in time to avoid another price run up. futures contracts apply for only a fixed time and what self respecting commodities trader can resist jumping on a trend?

i suppose the other thing we can't know is, once oil prices go back up, how long will it take for that money to filter through the russian economy and get back into the hands of upwardly mobile consumers? with the government in control of russia's largest oil and gas producer and with a 65% tax on revenues of private companies like lukoil, my guess is that it will not take long at all.

how do you say government bailout in russian?

and, more important, how long will it take for p4p in russia (well, moscow anyhow) to hit new heights?[/quote]
jake its thing call supply and demand. the world is on its knees. this depression or bad recession what ever you see it at. lay offs people losing there jobs. manufacturing plants shutting down. the world will wake up some day and quit buying us treasury notes (buy gold) the big 3 auto industry is collapsing no hope.. even the republicans can see this. they created all this mess. needless to say oil will go up in price eventually but not in the near distant future maybe in the next 12 to 18 months. i can see trade wars a comming. its going to be ugly and not very pretty in the next 2 years. goldman sachs says oil will hit as low as $25.00 us a barrel. i hope the jews on wall street are right about this. but we will survive good reading your reports about rossiya. as the old saying goes can any one spare a dime?? does any body want to buy soft wood lumber??/ hehehe as for now jake like the great gold rush back in the 1800s alberta is closing all new pojects in the tar sands. its not a rosey picture. yep times are tough in the land of oil in alberta. but dont worry oil is cheap but now the refineries are fucking the canadians. so if oil is $150.00 @barrel or $25.00@barrel canadians still get fuck. look what a gallon of gas costs in canada today. i watch cnbc stock market report via satelite here in moscow and arron burnett was just here 2 weeks ago always snickering on tv how corrupt russia is.. hahaha if you want to look at criminals just look around you arron its call wall street. what ever criminal activities that go on in rossiya is nothing compare to wall strret. who will ever trust again the stock market in new york??? i actually feel sorry for obama barrack the poor bastard has a hell of a job trying to fix what can not be fix. lets give another 20 billion dollars from tarp (tax payers money) to more wall street executives (bonuses) yeah that will help and more money to bank of america to help them in buying merril lynch hehehehe christ let bernie maddoff go free i say.. yeah rossiya has corruption this is true but they never bank rupted the world like wall strret. jake the reson oil prices are down is because of all the foreclosed homes in the usa no need to heat those homes. hehehehehe yes things will get worse before they get better. russian pussy is getting cheaper buy the day here in moscow. i ray gold man sachs is correct. hehehehe

Pussy getting cheaper by the day in Moscow? Drill baby, drill........

Say, on another note, I always end up in Moscow without finding a gym or a workout club. That's the (only) problem with an apartment vs a hotel. I am staying right at Pushkin Square - anyone know of a gym that will allow you to pay by the visit? I don't need anything elaborate. Just a treadmill or elliptical trainer or exercise bike.

Thanks.

[QUOTE=Jake993]Pussy getting cheaper by the day in Moscow? Drill baby, drill........

Say, on another note, I always end up in Moscow without finding a gym or a workout club. That's the (only) problem with an apartment vs a hotel. I am staying right at Pushkin Square - anyone know of a gym that will allow you to pay by the visit? I don't need anything elaborate. Just a treadmill or elliptical trainer or exercise bike.

Thanks.[/QUOTE]PM me for a gym which u can use for a daily fee.

About 15 min to walk from pushkin square.

[QUOTE=Laoshu2]PM me for a gym which u can use for a daily fee.

About 15 min to walk from pushkin square.[/QUOTE]
Many thanks for the information but I tried to PM you and apparently you are not receiving messages at this time. Is that intentional or by accident?