In Moscow, a Financial District in Name Only

[10023]

MOSCOW — In the coveted corner office, a bearded man in sweatpants scrambled eggs at a kitchenette, all the while taking in the serene beauty of the city lights twinkling far below.

In the conference room, or as the company prefers to call it, the “common area,” two other men lounged about playing video games on an Xbox. In place of cubicles, there are bunk beds.

High Level Hostel, one of the newest tenants in the financial district here known as Moscow City, sits on prime real estate on the 43rd floor of a multimillion-dollar glass-and-steel tower. It is not a youth-hostel-themed work space, but an actual youth hostel — dirty socks and all.

“We thought, ‘why not open a hostel in a skyscraper?’ ” said Roman Drozdenko, the 25-year-old owner. “Nobody’s done that before.”

The tower, with its marble veneer foyer, banks of elevators and breathtaking views, was clearly built for lawyers, accountants or stock traders. But “there were no questions regarding our guests” from the building management when he opened in September, Mr. Drozdenko said. “In fact, there were no questions at all.”

Moscow’s skyscraper district, formally the Moscow International Business Center, reflects the broader problems in the Russian economy. The country, facing broad-ranging financial sanctions and largely dominated by state-run companies, simply has no need for vast office spaces for stock traders, auditors and bankers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/26/re...thing-but.html


Not really surprising. I will save my usual comments debating whether Moscow counts as a European city...

[kool maudit]

russia is a petro-state and oil is falling. when you add sanctions to the mix, the picture for russian equity or currency investors is not pretty.

global finance is a globalist game, and the dominant consensus remains the anglo-american one. the dominant characteristic of russia's current regime is its refusal to play ball with this narrative, and a look at the new york and london media following the mh17 crash shows the degree to which their host nations are aligning against moscow.

[10023]

As they should.

And it's not just a petro-state, it's a kleptocracy. One with a failing culture and no real hope for improvement.

[nito]

Moscow’s problems are pretty broad and go beyond sanctions: endemic corruption, an unsafe environment, political interference in the private sector, rampant (sometimes government orchestrated) xenophobia, etc… It isn’t a coincidence that many Russians make a beeline (with their families and cash) for other international jurisdictions as soon as they have two pennies to their name, so attracting international talent from London, Hong Kong and elsewhere is always going to be convoluted affair.

[osmo]

It's hard to take a NYT article on anything regarding Russia serious. They really don't have a clue. The realities of Russia re very different then what is presented to us in the press here in North America.

The towers are investment mechanisms and nothing more. This shell game is common place in the Gulf and Asia.

[Ch.G, Ch.G]

Originally Posted by osmo

The towers are investment mechanisms and nothing more. This shell game is common place in the Gulf and Asia.

So what's the rate of return on these towers?

[dc_denizen]

^ when your producing a necessary good (oil) with fixed demand and no competition for 50 and selling for 80, earning 30% margin, returns in other sectors are less important. Plenty of capital to go around.

[sentinel]

Originally Posted by dc_denizen

^ when your producing a necessary good (oil) with fixed demand and no competition for 50 and selling for 80, earning 30% margin, returns in other sectors are less important. Plenty of capital to go around.

Ideally, but in Russia's case a very tiny minority is controlling that money.

[Mad_Nick]

Originally Posted by sentinel

Ideally, but in Russia's case a very tiny minority is controlling that money.

And that's different from the rest of the world how?

[Ch.G, Ch.G]

Originally Posted by dc_denizen

^ when your producing a necessary good (oil) with fixed demand and no competition for 50 and selling for 80, earning 30% margin, returns in other sectors are less important. Plenty of capital to go around.

Except that it is important. Because oil prices have been precipitously declining. And if you're a petrostate that hasn't developed any other sectors of you're economy, you're fucked.

So these buildings are "investment mechanisms." Investments in what?

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by Mad_Nick

And that's different from the rest of the world how?

Lol, sheer scale? You have people making $10k/year and then people with $10 billion and pretty much no one in between... Oh and there is absolutely no semblance of Democracy so anyone who isn't an oligarch is completely disenfranchised.

[599GTO]

That country sickens me.

Burn that shit down.

[mistercorporate]

I long for the day when the xenophobic states of this world are crushed by the boots of globalization...

Russia is a facade with a sickened core.

[kool maudit]

interesting to see the resurgence of anti-russian sentiment in the west.

personally, i am honestly not interested in russia's inequality (as many states have this set-up) or its xenophobia (why must every state obey the dictat of mass migration? many states, including allies such as japan, are not 'open' in the sense that the editors of the economist prefer). it's not my concern, and it's nothing i care enough about to envision boots crushing this or that. what an image!

to build a devil on these things is to play atop shaky sands and also to serve our masters.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by Mad_Nick

And that's different from the rest of the world how?

Ask Norway.

[antinimby]

A Russia with a bad economy will lead to political instability. You do not really want a Russia that is in turmoil. It has repercussions for the entire world and none of it will be good.

[LouisVanDerWright]

^^^ Russia already had 50+ years of political stability, we called it the Cold War...

Honestly a strong Russia is a dangerous Russia. Russia's history is defined by strongmen leaders because it's geographic sprawl makes it impossible to control the country any other way. If Russia is weak, then the leader must spend all their time tending to the various splinter states that will inevitably arise and spend less time trying to strong arm their neighbors. Ukraine was a massive net win for the West as it resulted in about 75% of Ukraine leaving the Russian sphere of influence (possibly forever) and about 25% remaining a defacto (or actual) part or Russia.

The rise of Anti-Russian sentiment in the West is a very clear reaction to the gradual increase of Russian aggression over the past 10 years or so as a combination of high oil prices, the economic crash in the West, and the return of Putin to the forefront stoked Russian confidence. When Russia gets confident they quickly return to their old ways which obviously concerns Western allied neighbors like Poland. The West certainly agitated in Ukraine, but it was retaliation for Russian saber rattling in Ukraine, the European energy sector, Iran, and Syria (among other issues). The fact is Putin is gradually pushing Russia back into the Soviet era and the West is taking action to punish him heavily for it by pushing the Russian economy back into the Soviet era. This all about reminding Russia that the new world order heralded after the fall of the Iron Curtain still stands.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

russia is a petro-state and oil is falling. when you add sanctions to the mix, the picture for russian equity or currency investors is not pretty.

global finance is a globalist game, and the dominant consensus remains the anglo-american one. the dominant characteristic of russia's current regime is its refusal to play ball with this narrative, and a look at the new york and london media following the mh17 crash shows the degree to which their host nations are aligning against moscow.

While I don't disagree with this narrative, it isn't really an Anglosphere narrative but a Western one. The German media has been every bit as critical of Putin and the Russian aggression as media in the Anglosphere. And Germany, unlike the US/UK, has deep economic, political and cultural ties with Russia.

[ardecila]

So Moscow now has a Potemkin Pudong?

[Shawn]

Originally Posted by ardecila

So Moscow now has a Potemkin Pudong?

Ha! That's awesome