*Anastasia Tkacheva, a student and the niece of the governor of Kuban (the Krasnodar region), is a co-owner of two pipe plants in the region, a major real estate developer, and a company that invested 3 billion rubles in a poultry complex. Young people’s participation in small business can only be welcomed, says her father, State Duma deputy Alexei Tkachev. *///////////// What an outrageously brazen—indeed downright rude—article in Vedomosti. Sure, she’s 22. A student. The governor’s niece, yes.
So what now? Does that automatically mean she couldn’t have earned all of it through honest work? You can practically see the Russophobia showing through. They’re allowed. We’re not. When some Zuckerberg invents Facebook and becomes a billionaire, that’s good. But when an ordinary girl from Kuban, Anastasia Tkacheva, builds pipe plants and a poultry farm at 22, that’s bad, is it? So when some Sergey Brin builds Google and makes a billion, we clap our hands, but the fact that Nastya Tkacheva has been founding various companies since she was 19—that we don’t like. And Brin, by the way, called Russia a "Snowy Nigeria." I’m sure Anastasia Tkacheva would never allow herself to say such a thing. She’s a true patriot. She probably went to "Seliger" (a pro-Kremlin youth forum). And probably joined "United Russia" (the ruling political party). And she calls Russia a "country of wonderful opportunities that allowed me to build my own efficient business from scratch." Her business success is obviously explained by the fact that the business must be innovative. All sorts of technology. Buttons lighting up, sensors beeping. These days that’s what they call a "startup." And here’s how her father—the governor’s brother and a State Duma deputy—explains it: *Tkachev does not consider it improper that his daughter is engaged in "small business." These are small, recently established enterprises processing plastic granules, says the deputy; this is not about enrichment (no dividends have been paid), but merely about launching an interesting venture: young people must be given the opportunity to earn money, and the whole country will benefit from it. *Seems perfectly reasonable and convincing to me. What’s especially important is the phrase "the whole country will benefit from it." Of course we’ll all benefit from it. I can already feel myself starting to benefit from the fact that the governor’s niece is a billionaire at 22. In rubles for now. But by 25 she’ll surely be a dollar billionaire. Good for her. And the editors of Vedomosti ought to apologize, in my opinion, for their insinuations and cheap sarcasm. For insulting a young woman entrepreneur. And, through her, the entire small-business sector. And the Ministry of Communications should slap them with a warning, because these insolent people are going too far. At this rate, they’ll end up writing something like this:
***Governor Tkachev of Krasnodar Krai is a corrupt official and a crook; he uses his office for personal gain. Together with his brother, he uses unlawful administrative leverage to support a private business registered in his niece’s name. An investigation should be launched against him, one that will put both him and his brother in the dock. Governor Tkachev is a member of the "United Russia" party, and that is further proof that "United Russia" is a party of thieves. ***But of course none of that is true at all. If it were true, they would have said so on television.