The Senility of Vladimir P Read Online Free Page A

the sight of it, Vladimir’s fingers twitched. He had two of his own that had been given to him over the years, amongst Pateks, Breguets, Piquets, Richard Milles and anything else that the most elite Swiss horologists could devise in their mountain workshops. In the early days, he had taken Rolexes, but after a while anyone who turned up with one would get a quiet word in their ear from Evgeny Monarov, his closest consigliere, even before they were brought in to meet him, and a courier would turn up the next day with something more select.
    Vladimir heard the businessman out. At the end he said simply: ‘So you think Moscow really needs this new ring road?’
    Kolyakov shrugged. ‘Vladimir Vladimirovich, would I be suggesting it if I didn’t? The traffic problems are immense.’
    â€˜But another ring road? Is that the best way to solve them?’ Vladimir raised a vodka. ‘Your health,’ he said, and took a sip. ‘How long is it that we’ve known each other, Dima?’
    â€˜Twenty years,’ said the billionaire.
    â€˜I remember the first time you came and sat in that chair.’
    â€˜I do too! Without you, I’d be nothing, Vova.’
    Vladimir laughed. ‘No one would be anything! Russia would be nothing! Do you know what a shitheap it was when I got hold of it? If you think you do, think again. Tell me, how much did you pay the first time?’
    â€˜To see you?’
    Vladimir nodded, downing his vodka.
    â€˜A million dollars.’
    â€˜That was cheap.’
    â€˜Very cheap. Ridiculous.’
    â€˜Today it’s five million, Monarov tells me. Maybe it’s more. I don’t even know.’
    â€˜It should be more. Your time is priceless, Vladimir Vladimirovich.’
    â€˜So, was it a good investment?’
    â€˜A very good investment,’ replied Kolyakov without hesitation. ‘At ten times the price it would have been a good investment.’
    Vladimir nodded. Not as good an investment as it was for me, he thought. To make people pay to meet him, only so that they would have the chance to offer him even more money – who could imagine such a business? The first time he saw how this kind of thing could be done, when he came back to Russia and found himself in the city government in St Petersburg during the wild days as the Soviet Union collapsed, he could barely believe it. An eye-opener. At the start he was barely a spectator, getting the crumbs of the crumbs, a percentage of the percentages, but as he rose in influence and got the hang of the game, the money came flooding in. Commissions, fees, markups, kickbacks – call it what you want. Set up a company and watch the businessmen queue up to route their business through it and leave you twenty percent as they did. Sometimes thirty or forty percent. Import, export, food, oil . . . Never in his life had he imagined it could be so easy or that he could take so much. But as it turned out, even that was small beer. Once he got to Moscow, everything would have an extra zero on the end, or two, or three.
    â€˜I’m not sure about another ring road,’ he said. ‘Didn’t the latest report say another ring road would make things worse?’
    â€˜That’s just a report, Vladimir Vladimirovich,’ said Kolyakov, waving a hand airily. ‘A word from you, and it’s forgotten.’
    â€˜I thought it said extensions to the metro or even a light rail system would be better.’
    Kolyakov shook his head gravely. ‘That’s very expensive.’
    â€˜This isn’t?’
    â€˜Well, more metro . . .’ Kolyakov shook his head again. ‘We’d need foreign partners. You know what they’re like, Vladimir Vladi­mirovich. They have laws in their countries about what they can and can’t do – who they can and can’t give to, I mean. They don’t really understand how things are done. This is much better for us. Nice and