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business degree from the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota to good use. He was in
the United States from 1999 to 2001. Now, back home in Novosibirsk, he spends days in
meetings with big shots who are buying his family's carpeting—their big new contract is
with the recently opened Marriott hotel in the city.
“I'd say my mother is officially the head of the company,” Alexei says, pushing his lips
into a half-joking smile. “But I do all the work.”
He is sitting facing Rose and me. We settle in for a few cups of coffee as the café begins
playing the Tears for Fears tune “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.”
“I just traveled to Lebanon,” Alexei tells us. “In my childhood, I watched the terrible
news saying Beirut is hell. I was just deeply impressed and surprised when I saw it because
we only hear about Lebanon when it's in trouble.”
And he feels like Russia gets a bad rap abroad as well. I tell him the impression among
Americans is that doing business in Russia means constantly bribing, assuming you have
the connections to get in the game at all. He tells me only roughly half of the business trans-
actions in Russia are dirty, involving some kind of bribes.
“To an American, that sounds like a lot,” I say.
“I know, I knooow,” he groans. He explains that
his
family's business is on the up-and-
up, and he wishes more businesses were following suit. “Russia—it's not as clean as the
United States. But I'd say not as dirty as Asia or Africa. Somewhere in between. But we
don't pay much attention to this. I know it's not really good. But it's part of a long herit-
age—not just from Soviet times, but even earlier. Look, I know how American society built
itself. I know how Russian society built itself. It's a different culture and different philo-
sophy here. It's not like, 'Hey, let's just build democracy.'”
Alexei calls himself a fan of democracy, not so much a fan of Putin. “Some days I like
him, some days I don't.” A day he didn't came in 2012 when Putin signed a temporary ban
on the adoption of Russian children by American families. Alexei didn't see how it made
sense to prevent Russian babies from finding loving homes. “That's like saying, 'Let me
cut off my finger to try and make you uncomfortable.'”
“And on days when you like him,” I wonder, “why do you like him?”
“He's a strong leader. This is the first thing people like about him because they're so
tired of weak, stupid people. Like Khrushchev, a real village guy. Brezhnev was vulgar, just
an old crumbling person. And Gorbachev? He said too much and did almost nothing.”
On balance, Alexei would rather Putin be gone. He voted against him in the last election
“just to show that we're not satisfied with some of the stupid politics,” he says. Alexei's
pretty sure the election was rigged. He agrees with critics who said Putin and his allies
made sure—by forgery, or pressuring voters in some districts—that he had enough votes in
a first round to avoid a run-off.
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