According to the World Bank, Russia has become the main provider of low-skilled jobs for all of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, accounting for two-thirds of all migrant workers’ earnings in these regions. Foreigners working here sent more than $11 billion abroad, compared with $4 billion sent home by Russians working overseas. SmartMoney, the business supplement of Vedomosti, has an article about what an awesome business it is to bring labor migrants from Central Asia and China into Russia. Hardworking and Curious Well, it’s just an article—nothing new there. I probably wouldn’t have paid attention if not for the astonishing comment by some guy named Maxim Temnikov. “Russian citizens feel so great about themselves that, even without qualifications, they don’t want to work for a salary of $800–1,000,” complains Maxim Temnikov, a member of the board of directors of Mirax Group. What a bastard! There’s no better word for such a prominent builder. Mirax Group builds luxury real estate of rather lousy quality (like all our other developers). Taking advantage of the corrupt monopoly created by Luzhkov (former Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov), Mirax sells its properties for no less than $7,000 per square meter. That is more expensive than housing of FAR higher quality in New York and London. It is much more expensive than real estate of FAR higher quality somewhere like Dubai (even though it, too, is built by migrants). The construction cost of a house built to an individual design, with every possible feature included, is $1,700 per square meter. Taking into account high-rise construction and “luxury,” it’s $2,500, at most $3,000. Quite a healthy profit margin, isn’t it? No wonder Mirax representatives end up on lists of domestic billionaires. Maybe Mirax really has built a successful business—and great, everyone’s happy—but obviously the main reason for its super-profits is corruption, monopoly, and artificial scarcity. So they should just sit quietly, keep their mouths shut, and spend their money on girls in Courchevel (the French ski resort popular with Russia’s rich). But no, damn it, they absolutely have to say something else about the excessive demands of the “native residents,” who imagine themselves to be great, though they are merely cattle meant to serve the enlightened class. The enlightened class is unhappy that the cattle eat too much but do not work hard enough. Another quote outlines the way out of this situation. A representative of a recruiting firm says: KMK tried working with the Russian provinces too—it didn’t work out. The housing issue got in the way. Asians have it easier. “They’re fine with a rented apartment where there are so few beds that they sleep in shifts,” Vinogradova shares. “And they can live on pilaf with nothing but rice and carrots in it.” Really, then why shouldn’t Russians, who think so highly of themselves, do the same? Come on, everyone—for the sake of helping the crooks from Mirax Group move up the FORBES list faster, let’s all live on carrots and cram into rented apartments with 15 people to a room. Mirax doesn’t need workers; it needs slaves. That’s why ordinary Russian cattle are uncompetitive. And yet they still demand things. Because ordinary Russian cattle—who finished school, then went to a technical college instead of Harvard Business School, and then onto a construction site— - need to have housing, even if only rented; - need to pay a bribe to get their child into kindergarten; - need to feed and clothe that child, buying everything in Moscow stores; - need to have paid vacation; They need, in general, to have some semblance of a decent life, one that can be bought with a decent wage. Which causes outrage and astonishment in Maxim Temnikov of Mirax Group. Maxim Temnikov chooses migrants. Preferably illegal ones. In every respect they are better than Russians: - you can feed them carrots; - they live in dorms on three-tier bunks; - they work for pennies; - they won’t form a union; - under no circumstances will you hear from them the phrase “I’m going to file a complaint”; - if anything happens, you can simply refuse to pay them at all and call the cops, who will take them away from the construction site; - and if they fall from a crane or burn to death (as happened at the construction site of one Very Well-Known Company, where 40 Tajiks burned to death in a locked basement), you can just bury them in the foundation of a future luxury building. That, my friends, is where the occupiers and enemies are. Ridiculous, dangerous, and stupid are those people who, trying to defend Russian interests, catch some unfortunate Tajik in the street and beat him. The Tajik is not the occupier. The Tajik is not guilty of anything at all. In Dushanbe, he was recruited by a slave trader named Jafar, and in Moscow he was bought by the slave owner Temnikov. So the Tajik should be paid his wages and deported. But monsieur Temnikov should be dealt with differently.