Ma Wenjie went to the East Sea Port to implement the transportation of equipment, followed by exploration and design, organization of plant construction and recruitment and training of employees, although he brought a team of more than a dozen people, he was still very busy, and he did not have time to sit down with Li Rui until a week later.

"I'm going to Russia next month, and these people I've brought with me are unfamiliar with the place, so I want you to take care of them then."

Li Rui was stunned when he heard this, "Brother Wenjie, didn't you say that you won't go in the future, and it will be cold when you go there next month, why are you going?" ”

Ma Wenjie smiled and said: "This cement plant project has invested almost all of my assets, and now the business in Russia is still doing well, so you can't put the money and not make it." ”

"So what business are you going to do? Or is it an international master? Li Rui asked with a smile.

Ma Wenjie shook his head and said, "Now there are more and more people going to Russia to do business, and it is not easy to do international business." Saying that, he sighed and said: "Actually, we are just picking up leftovers that others don't want to eat, and it is the Western countries that really make a lot of money." They opened banks in Russia a few years ago, and these 'no queues', 'smiling hospitality', 'modern private banks' with independent accounting have sprung up in every Russian city. Their free coffee, their kind smiles, undoubtedly give the Russian people a feeling that these foreign banks are much stronger than those state-owned banks! Against this backdrop, these foreign banks and financial institutions have absorbed a large amount of ruble savings from Russian private and corporate sectors through various gray means at relatively high interest rates and a free cup of coffee. The people's deposits moved from state-owned banks to foreign-funded banks. In addition, foreign banks have also used various gray methods to extract ruble money from the Central Bank of Russia, state-owned banks and state-owned financial institutions. ”

"In the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the first thing Russia carried out was the privatization of state-owned enterprises. Divide up state-owned assets through securities. At that time, everyone could get almost 10,000 to 15,000 rubles, which was 30,000 or 40,000 dollars according to the exchange rate at that time. That's a lot of money, and it can be said that the people of all Russia are reveling. ”

Hear here. Li Rui has already understood that what Ma Wenjie is talking about is the depreciation of the ruble that broke out just two years ago and will continue until the next century. I saw him sigh deeply again and said: "After the foreign investment of those Western countries relied on the sufficient amount of ruble ammunition from Soviet depositors and Soviet state-owned banks, a move began to weaken the market. What are those bonds of state-owned enterprises that have no ability to pay dividends, and it is better to throw them out for cash than to keep them useless! The Russian people started selling bonds, and the bonds plummeted. At the same time, these foreign banks in the market began to quietly privatize the bond buying operation, and at the same time launched the ......"

Li Rui is clear about this history, but when he heard Ma Wenjie, a person who has experienced it firsthand, talk about it again, he had a different feeling in his heart, and followed his words and continued: "So to speak." These state-owned enterprises left over from the former Soviet Union were sold by their people. ”

Ma Wenjie nodded and said with a wry smile: "It's a pity that those of us who have just passed still can't understand that those foreign banks owe astronomical ruble debts in the process of repurchasing bonds, and even the interest is an extremely large number, which is enough to drag down these foreign banks and make them bankrupt." But no one expected that at this time, the US Friendly Financial Expert Group would put forward a proposal that had a 'friendly purpose' -- to further relax the regulation of the free exchange of the ruble and the dollar to combat black market transactions. ”

"The Russians must have been fooled." Li Rui interjected.

"At that time, Russia was democratizing, and financial experts and independent media in the United States and the former Soviet Union repeatedly ridiculed the 'administrative and financial supervision methods', describing the normal central bank's financial regulatory powers and practices as 'centralized behavior'. And people were very excited about the newfound political democracy, and at the suggestion of this friendly suggestion, financial regulation was liberalized, and there was no sign of the crisis that followed. Ma Wenjie nodded.

Li Rui thought of how similar this scene was to the so-called brick family and beast remarks he had seen on the Internet in his previous life. It seems that this scene is playing out in your own country again, what will it be like in the future? Will it be the same as the former Soviet Union? He may not see it until decades. Still, he prayed in his heart that this kind of tragedy would not happen in his own country, even though his country was still so magical.

Ma Wenjie continued: "After the financial opening. There was a queue outside private banks to exchange dollars. Why do people exchange rubles for dollars? Because there is hyperinflation in Russia. Why does hyperinflation occur? This is because under the supply system of the former Soviet Union, all major consumer goods were supplied by ticket, but the supply of daily goods was seriously insufficient. The gap between the market supply and the money income of residents has reached about 50 percent. Let's say a person who is paid a salary of 100 roubles, but can only buy daily necessities for a maximum of 50 roubles with a ticket. The remaining fifty rubles can only be deposited in the bank. Over time, the Soviet people had a lot of deposits in the banks, and all of a sudden the market was opened up to achieve a market economy, and people could freely buy and sell daily necessities. In other words, the price of goods that used to be fifty rubles will instantly rise to one hundred rubles. The long-term shortage of goods and the surplus of currency erupted in a short period of time when the market economy opened up, and the accumulated energy was extremely amazing. ”

Speaking of this, Ma Wenjie said with a happy face: "Our country has also initially opened up the market in recent years, and may have learned the lessons of the former Soviet Union. Even if there is some volatility in the price of commodities in the market, it is extremely limited. What's more, our country's banks have not been opened up immediately, which has also effectively curbed inflation. ”

"I heard that now the exchange rate of the ruble and the dollar is almost 1:3000." Li Rui said.

"More than that!" Ma Wenjie shook his head and said, "The official exchange rate of the ruble just announced yesterday is 1:3235, but the price on the black market has long exceeded four thousand. I think that when the Soviet Union had just collapsed, the exchange rate of the ruble was 1:0.6! It was at that time that the foreign banks began to take ruble deposits and loans aggressively. Tell me about it. Once hyperinflation occurs, people will wonder how to preserve their value. And switching to a stable dollar is a good way to go. So people started lining up to exchange dollars. ”

Speaking of this, Ma Wenjie took a sip of tea. The expression on his face was both sad and mocking: "At this time, those anxious Russian giants have not paid attention to these well-served, non-queued private banks, and no longer offer free coffee!" The smile they face has turned into a sneer: because at this time, in the eyes of private banks, they are no longer noble customers, but beggars! ”

"The former president of the Soviet Union, who stepped down, probably never dreamed that the pension that would have been enough to make him rich for the rest of his life was now not worth even fifty dollars." Then he said with a look of annoyance: "I think we actually had a good relationship with those government officials at the beginning, after all, everyone was a socialist country before, and there was still a honeymoon period in history." There are still class feelings among everyone. But I couldn't have thought of borrowing some money from their state-owned bank at that time, otherwise it would have been thousands or even tens of thousands of times the profit now! And now it has been depreciating, do you know how miserable the common people in Russia are now? A short time ago, I wanted to recruit some technical personnel from the cement factory, but they were all elites in the cement industry in the former Soviet Union, who were running around for two hundred dollars a month, and they did not hesitate to leave their hometowns and wanted to come with me. Speaking of which, they're all going to be there next month, so you can help take care of them then. I don't worry about these old hairy people, but I don't have a temperate drinking, so I'm afraid that something will happen when I drink. ”

"That's fine, you can rest assured." Li Rui nodded. Then he asked, "Brother Wenjie, then you also want to borrow something this time?" ”

"Do you think Lao Maozi is so stupid? They have long known that they have fallen for the Western countries, and now they have begun to gradually tighten the monetary base. This road is no longer going to work. Ma Wenjie shook his head and sighed, "I mainly wanted to inspect their oil industry this time. See if there are any business opportunities in the energy sector. ”

Hearing that Ma Wenjie wanted to enter the Russian oil industry, Li Rui immediately became alarmed. The oil of the year was not like the flowing gold of the future. Although oil prices began to skyrocket after the outbreak of the first Gulf War and are still stable at a relatively high price, he clearly remembers that in the next few years, oil prices will still fall in a straight line, and by the time of the economic crisis in '97 and '98, oil prices would fall to $134 a barrel for a time. He can fool Qi Zheng and Ma Xiaojun, but for Ma Wenjie, the big brother, Li Rui still feels the need to remind him.

"Brother Wenjie, you can think about it clearly, investing in the oil industry is not a simple matter, not to mention a large amount of money, but also to have a strong interpersonal relationship over there, otherwise if you don't get it right, it will be empty!"

"There is no problem with funds, this time I went to the capital, because I have a few friends who are very interested in Russian oil, and want to use my connections there to cooperate in oil extraction, and it is of course best to buy a few oil wells. When I was in St. Petersburg last year, I happened to know a deputy mayor there, and two oil companies under them were trying to find a way to bring in foreign capital because of the current oil sales situation. However, this deputy mayor has a very good character, and it may be that some companies in Western countries have put forward some harsh conditions, and he is now resolute not to cooperate with Western oil companies, but he is very interested in cooperating with us. Ma Wenjie said.

"Yes, this deputy mayor really has a bit of a personality." Li Rui said with a smile, but even so, he still does not approve of Ma Wenjie's cooperation with the oil company in St. Petersburg, at least the time is still ripe, if you wait a few more years, when the price of oil falls to the lowest, it will be the best time to intervene.

In fact, the largest consumers of oil in this era are the United States, Europe and Japan, but none of them buy Russian oil. There is only one reason, they finally collapsed the former Soviet Union, how can they raise tigers again? Speaking of the first Gulf War, the United Nations forces were originally fully capable of overthrowing Saddam's regime, but after they recovered Kuwait, they did not march to Baghdad, although the slogan they shouted was to help Kuwait and uphold justice. But in fact, everyone can understand it, in an ancient Chinese saying: raising thieves is self-respecting! In order to control the oil supply of most countries in the Gulf region.

With a stable supply of oil in the Gulf region, all countries participating in the UN force will naturally benefit, and even the European countries closest to Russia will ignore them. The former Soviet Union and even later Russia mainly relied on oil exports for foreign exchange earnings, and oil could not be sold, and the collapse of the domestic economy required a large amount of foreign exchange for blood transfusion, so that Russia was forced to borrow at high interest rates from the G7 in the West.

When Li Rui analyzed these international situations to Ma Wenjie, Ma Wenjie looked at him dumbfounded and said in surprise: "Where did you hear all this?" This kind of news should be difficult to see in China! ”

Li Rui smiled: "Some of them are analyzed by myself, and some of them are from Hong Kong magazines. He added: "In fact, now is not the best time to invest in Russian oil. Just now we mentioned that Russia borrowed money from the G7 in the West, and this money was not borrowed in vain, and the high interest rate does not count, and Russia must also be exchanged for national interests. Let's not talk about anything else, let's talk about the current NATO, according to the agreement signed between the Soviet Union and the United States, the Warsaw Pact was dissolved, and NATO should also be dissolved, but now NATO is still good, which is enough to show that Russia has made concessions in order to borrow money and has acquiesced in the existence of NATO. However, at present, Russia has not agreed to NATO's eastward expansion, and for Russia Europe is its strategic focus and core interests, and he will not give in until the last resort. ”

Ma Wenjie thought about it carefully, nodded and said, "Well, it makes sense." Do you mean that the United States and other Western countries absolutely do not want to see a powerful Russia rise again, and will continue to put pressure on Russia to finally force it to agree to NATO's eastward expansion? (To be continued......)