>>>I know people doing business and pretty OK there
Well, so do I, but you are the first not to complain of the pervasive corruption and constant threat of a takeover by better-connected competitor. Plus it does nothing for people on fixed income.
We are not a rose garden here, but the pattern vis-a-vis SE Asia is not relocation but off-shoring labor.<<<
Me too. My first observation is you have to keep out of people who claim they are connected and solves all your problems in Russia.
Thus, it is hard not to swallow a bait under a stress of new environment.
They are a recipe of disaster creating that same problem they are supposed to solve.
I think some 70% of corruption problems foreign businesses expierenced there are just a drama by these “helpers” to steal your money under false pretext of bribing some official or giving it out to mafia for protection.
The problem is these people corrupts your business if trusted too much and one day you can have real problems but it is nothing but your own fault.
Do your business as clean as possible, have a good lawyer and they won’t ever touch you.
That won't work so well if they ARE connected.