My time living in Russia was challenging, incredible and everywhere in between. Being an American in Russia was interesting. Some people were excited and intrigued to know why we were there. Others liked to tell us that they “hated all Americans for what we did to their country” and wanted nothing to do with us altogether. The owner of our flat in Moscow was very excited to have Americans living in her flat and even took us out around the city to share her culture with us. We also had people refuse to wait on us at a restaurant because we couldn’t speak Russian. We had to learn to integrate ourselves carefully into their culture without losing ourselves.
We worked for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. Doing business in Russia was more of a dance than just purely living. Moran, Harris and Moran (2011) state that Russia “remains one of the most criminalized, corrupt, and bureaucratic countries in the world”. Unfortunately, this is completely accurate and we saw it first-hand. A close friend was in a car accident while driving to work in Sochi. It was both his fault and the fault of the other driver. First of all, four DPS (Road Inspection Service) (Wikipedia, n.d.) officers continued driving once they learned my friend didn’t speak Russian. One finally stopped and began the reports of the accident. He made detailed reports with measurements and diagrams of the accident. Long story short, to allow both sides of the accident to make proper insurance claims, both parties were told to pay a large “fee” to get new, fabricated, official reports written up stating that they were both in single car accidents and the accident was due to environmental surroundings. The original accident report was torn up and these new, fake reports were now the “official” reports.
The corruption moves through business just as smoothly. The Olympic Games in Sochi cost an estimated $51 billion (Schmemann, 2014). This is more than $40 billion over budget. An International Olympic Committee (IOC) member reported that as much of a third of the budget had been “siphoned off in shady dealings” (Campbell-Dollaghan, 2014). Moran, et al. (2011) state that one of the reasons business is such a challenge in Russia is due to the “remnants of very powerful ‘oligarchs’ who once amassed their wealth by seizure or rigged purchasing of state assets, and still are to be found among the rich elite”. It was reported that once the bid was awarded to Russia, the contracts for construction in Sochi “were awarded to Putin cronies and other oligarchs who saw a rich opportunity to profit”. “If you want to continue doing business in Russia, then you have to help Putin” (Campbell-Dollaghan, 2014).
Photo Source: Danielle Novack
What should have been a proud moment for Russia will unfortunately always be tarnished with the corruption, and many other issues, that the Games were faced with. Learning to live, and especially work, in this culture proved to be a difficult task but not impossible. It was very important to adopt some of their behaviors and practices while integrating into their business culture. And although living and working in Russia was a challenge, it was still an amazing experience and one I wouldn’t change for anything.
References:
Campbell-Dollaghan, K. (2014, February 3). Can Sochi Get Its Shit Together?. Retrieved from http://gizmodo.com/can-sochi-get-its-shit-together-1514828222?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:%20deadspin/full%20%28Deadspin%29
Moran, R. T., Harris, P. R., & Moran, S. V. (2011). Managing cultural differences: Global leadership strategies for cross-cultural business success (8th ed.). Oxford: Routledge
Schmemann, A. (2014, February 7). Corruption and Terrorism Overshadow the Sochi Olympics – US News. Retrieved from http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2014/02/07/corruption-and-terrorism-overshadow-the-sochi-olympics
Wikipedia. (n.d.). Main Directorate for Road Traffic Safety (Russia). Retrieved April 18, 2015, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Directorate_for_Road_Traffic_Safety_%28Russia%29
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