Angry Russian Businessmen Turn on Kremlin

Source: THE MOSCOW TIMES

When Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Potapenko exploded in rage at the Moscow Economic Forum he could not have known he would become an Internet sensation.
And yet he is not surprised.
"I did what everyone dreams of doing themselves," he said.
Three businessmen — Potapenko, his neighbor at the forum roundtable, farm boss Pavel Grudinin, and Crimean zoo director Oleg Zubkov — together gathered more than 2 million hits on YouTube with videos of speeches lambasting the authorities. The three work in different branches of business, but are united in their complaints of red tape, corruption and the deaf ear of the political elite to demands for reform.

They also say they are at the end of their tethers.
"Some take up a gun to shoot officials, as happened recently in Krasnogorsk; some grab a bottle of vodka and go drink; some pack their suitcases and leave; some sit quietly in prison; and some come out and loudly and say — 'What's going on here? We're fed up!'" Grudinin, head of the Lenin State Farm, told The Moscow Times.

Cracks

In his speech, Potapenko, the owner of a carpet factory and several supermarkets in Russia and Europe, slammed the abundance of levies and taxes and "criminal" import bans on Western produce, introduced in retaliation of sanctions over Russia's role in the Ukraine crisis.

Dmitry Potapenko
Entrepreneur and partner at Management Development Group, owner of several supermarkets in Russia and Europe.
Best quotes:
"The four knockout blows dealt to Russia have been inflicted on us by our own economic authorities."
"I've said for a long time that they should hang a sign on every official's door that says: 'Yes, we're taking the piss. And what are you going to do about it?'"

Officials and media have often blamed Russia's recession on external factors and anti-Russian policies by the West. But, "It's not [U.S. President] Barack Obama who is responsible for our prohibitively high interest rates," Potapenko said at the forum.
The outburst was a rare instance of public rebellion from an unexpected source that exposed the cracks in Russian society behind the sky-high ratings of President Vladimir Putin and patriotic fervor stirred up by Russian military actions in Ukraine and Syria.
Antagonism between authorities and the business sector is not new, but media headlines have mostly focused on statements from exiled tycoons and heads of major companies.
Potapenko, Grudinin and Zubkov are no bigwigs. They represent the average entrepreneur squeezed by bureaucracy — a cause that ordinary Russians can relate to.
With the economy hit by low oil prices and sanctions, Russians' real incomes have fallen sharply over the past year.
At the forum, Potapenko also referred to Platon — a new tax collection system for truckers that has led to the most visible anti-government protest in years. The company collecting the tax is owned by the son of Arkady Rotenberg, a billionaire and Putin's former judo sparring partner.
For Potapenko, it represents the state's willingness to dig into entrepreneurs pockets even as they struggle to survive an economic slump.