whoyg1743

Owning a business that sells or rents inflatable bouncers is a lucrative way to make money. These have become popular throughout the years. Many people will rent or purchase them to use at birthday parties and carnivals. It is a great way to entertain children for hours at a time.

It is important to keep your investments intact and to keep from having to replace or buy a new one anytime one of yours have become punctured. Each one are made with durable material - but rocks, sticks, and other debris can puncture through it and cause either a slow or major leak. Learn how you can repair it so you don't have to spend hundreds in replacing it.

Inflate the bouncer so that you can determine where the leak is coming from. It is best to do this in sections if the bouncer will allow you to. There is a lot of ground to cover. Try to do this before you go rent it out to make sure that all parts of the tent are in good shape. That way if you find a leak you can fix it before you send it off to be used.

When it is fully inflated look and listen for the source of the puncture. If the leak is slow you might not be able to find it easily this way. The next best thing would be for you to place water inside of the tent. Pour in tap water and some soap. You will know immediately where the leak is.

Use a felt tip to mark the leak. Take out the puncture repair kit and apply solvent to the plastic patch. Apply the patch to the edge of the tent so that the hole is sealed completely. Apply more adhesive to the outside of the patch and allow it to dry.

When the patch is dried pour more soapy water inside of the tent. If there are any more bubbles being released than you did not seal it properly or you have found another leak. Try to keep it inflated overnight to make sure that it is sealed properly.

As long as pearl jewelry have been known to people, they have been a highly sought commodity for their beauty. It's only in recent times however that the industry has taken the hunt for the perfect pearl to a whole different level. Today, the shiny orbs that we see on in display in jewelry stores have actually almost always been grown in farms. That's a far cry from the dangerous extraction and collection methods used before the invention of modern technology. In the past, not more than 100 years ago, the only way to retrieve pearls was by diving in lakes, floods and the ocean to pick them up, one at the time. The unfortunate divers who'se job it was to do this, were often poor and lured by the relative large sums they could get. The diver would sometimes have to dive as deep as 100 feet on one single breath of air. In order to preserve air and to stay submerged the longest, the divers would hold on to heavy stones on the way down. Naturally, this dangerous activity was reserved for the desperate or the powerless - in many cases slaves or extremely poor peasents. Today, this method is all but obsolete in most places of the world. The cheaper cultured pearls have become popular and are many times the only pearls available to the consumer. There are however still a few isolated areas that practice this old art of pearl diving. Some of the finest natural pearl speciments come from the gulf of Bahrain. Here, divers still risk their health to retrieve what are considered the top of the crop in the world. In fact, Bahrain wants no part of the sale of cultured pearls, banned from trade. Bahrain is one of the few places on earth that does an active job in trying to preserve the natural habitat and waters from pollution. It's an interesting story and one that continues to fascinate buyers around the world. Somehow, the beauty of the pearl grows when it's been retrieved from the depth of the ocean.

Buying pearl jewelry can be fun, exciting and confusing. Whether you're considering a gift of pearl jewelry for someone special or as a treat for yourself, take some time to learn the terms used in the industry. Here's some information to help you get the best quality pearl jewelry for your money, whether you're shopping in a traditional brick and mortar store or online. Pearls Natural or real pearls are made by oysters and other mollusks. Cultured pearls also are grown by mollusks, but with human intervention; that is, an irritant introduced into the shells causes a pearl to grow. Imitation pearls are man-made with glass, plastic, or organic materials. Because natural pearls are very rare, most pearls used in jewelry are either cultured or imitation pearls. Cultured pearls, because they are made by oysters or mollusks, usually are more expensive than imitation pears. A cultured pearl's value is largely based on its size, usually stated in millimeters, and the quality of its nacre coating, which give it luster. Jewelers should tell your if the pearls are cultured or imitation. Some black, bronze, gold, purple, blue and orange pearls, whether natural or cultured, occur that way in nature; some, however, are dyed through various processes. Jewelers should tell you whether the colored pearls are naturally colored, dyed or irradiated. Clams, oysters, mussels and many other mollusks with limy shells are known to produce pearls. But very few kinds yield gem pearls of jeweler's quality. The pearl is an abnormal growth of mother-of-pearl, or nacre, imbedded in the soft bodies of these shellfish. It is built up, layer upon layer, in the same way as nacre is added to the lining of the growing shell and always has the same color and luster. For example, over the country, hundreds of good-sized pearls are found each year in the oysters we eat. Unfortunately these have no commercial value regardless of whether they have been cooked or not because they are dull opaque white or purple like the shell of the parent oyster. In recent times almost all pearls of gem quality come from the oriental pearl oyster which has a bright shimmering translucent nacre. A pearl starts growing when some irritating foreign substance such as a sand grain, bit of mud, parasite or other object becomes lodged in the shell-producing gland called the mantle. Pearls formed in the soft flesh where nacre can be added on all sides are most likely to be spherical and the most highly prized. By far the great majority are flattened or variously distorted and have little value. Size, color, luster and freedom from flaws are other essential qualities. Unlike other gems, such as diamonds, pearls have an average life of only about 50 years. In time the small amount of water in a pearl's make-up is lost and its surface cracks. Because they are mostly lime, necklaces which are worn often are injured by the acid secretions of the human skin.

As long as pearl jewelry have been known to people, they have been a highly sought commodity for their beauty. It's only in recent times however that the industry has taken the hunt for the perfect pearl to a whole different level. Today, the shiny orbs that we see on in display in jewelry stores have actually almost always been grown in farms. That's a far cry from the dangerous extraction and collection methods used before the invention of modern technology. In the past, not more than 100 years ago, the only way to retrieve pearls was by diving in lakes, floods and the ocean to pick them up, one at the time. The unfortunate divers who'se job it was to do this, were often poor and lured by the relative large sums they could get. The diver would sometimes have to dive as deep as 100 feet on one single breath of air. In order to preserve air and to stay submerged the longest, the divers would hold on to heavy stones on the way down. Naturally, this dangerous activity was reserved for the desperate or the powerless - in many cases slaves or extremely poor peasents. Today, this method is all but obsolete in most places of the world. The cheaper cultured pearls have become popular and are many times the only pearls available to the consumer. There are however still a few isolated areas that practice this old art of pearl diving. Some of the finest natural pearl speciments come from the gulf of Bahrain. Here, divers still risk their health to retrieve what are considered the top of the crop in the world. In fact, Bahrain wants no part of the sale of cultured pearls, banned from trade. Bahrain is one of the few places on earth that does an active job in trying to preserve the natural habitat and waters from pollution. It's an interesting story and one that continues to fascinate buyers around the world. Somehow, the beauty of the pearl grows when it's been retrieved from the depth of the ocean.

Buying pearl jewelry can be fun, exciting and confusing. Whether you're considering a gift of pearl jewelry for someone special or as a treat for yourself, take some time to learn the terms used in the industry. Here's some information to help you get the best quality pearl jewelry for your money, whether you're shopping in a traditional brick and mortar store or online. Pearls Natural or real pearls are made by oysters and other mollusks. Cultured pearls also are grown by mollusks, but with human intervention; that is, an irritant introduced into the shells causes a pearl to grow. Imitation pearls are man-made with glass, plastic, or organic materials. Because natural pearls are very rare, most pearls used in jewelry are either cultured or imitation pearls. Cultured pearls, because they are made by oysters or mollusks, usually are more expensive than imitation pears. A cultured pearl's value is largely based on its size, usually stated in millimeters, and the quality of its nacre coating, which give it luster. Jewelers should tell your if the pearls are cultured or imitation. Some black, bronze, gold, purple, blue and orange pearls, whether natural or cultured, occur that way in nature; some, however, are dyed through various processes. Jewelers should tell you whether the colored pearls are naturally colored, dyed or irradiated. Clams, oysters, mussels and many other mollusks with limy shells are known to produce pearls. But very few kinds yield gem pearls of jeweler's quality. The pearl is an abnormal growth of mother-of-pearl, or nacre, imbedded in the soft bodies of these shellfish. It is built up, layer upon layer, in the same way as nacre is added to the lining of the growing shell and always has the same color and luster. For example, over the country, hundreds of good-sized pearls are found each year in the oysters we eat. Unfortunately these have no commercial value regardless of whether they have been cooked or not because they are dull opaque white or purple like the shell of the parent oyster. In recent times almost all pearls of gem quality come from the oriental pearl oyster which has a bright shimmering translucent nacre. A pearl starts growing when some irritating foreign substance such as a sand grain, bit of mud, parasite or other object becomes lodged in the shell-producing gland called the mantle. Pearls formed in the soft flesh where nacre can be added on all sides are most likely to be spherical and the most highly prized. By far the great majority are flattened or variously distorted and have little value. Size, color, luster and freedom from flaws are other essential qualities. Unlike other gems, such as diamonds, pearls have an average life of only about 50 years. In time the small amount of water in a pearl's make-up is lost and its surface cracks. Because they are mostly lime, necklaces which are worn often are injured by the acid secretions of the human skin.

MOSCOW - Russia's general prosecutor's office said it would decide by Thursday whether to charge a Russian diplomat who knocked down and killed a woman in Canada in a drunk driving incident.
The case of Andrei Knyazev, sent home from his assignment in Ottawa when Russia refused to waive his diplomatic immunity, has created a political furor in Canada, with opposition parties there accusing the Canadian Foreign Ministry of incompetence.
Vasily Glushchenko, a senior official at the prosecutor's office, said on Wednesday a decision on the charges had to be made by Thursday, when a 10-day deadline on examining evidence expires.
"We have received all the necessary documents on this matter from the Russian Foreign Ministry and from Canada," Glushchenko told Reuters.
Glushchenko said that since the case involved a traffic accident, it could be turned over to an Interior Ministry investigating team if charges were pressed.
As far as he knew, Knyazev, first secretary at the Ottawa embassy, was subject to freshwater pearl jewelry no detention order or ruling restricting his movements outside Moscow.
"I frankly see no need for any detention as this was not a murder or a premeditated crime," he said.
Ottawa police charged Knyazev with impaired driving after the fatal crash last month, but he was recalled immediately to Moscow and Russia promised that he would face justice there.
Opposition politicians accused the foreign ministry of negligence for not expelling Knyazev earlier after it emerged that he had twice been investigated for drunk driving in 1999.
Canadian Foreign Minister John Manley later ordered that a probe into Knyazev be widened to include allegations that his officials had helped cover up evidence of serious crimes committed by diplomats serving in Canada.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has in the meantime noted that the wife of a Canadian diplomat was involved in one of 12 traffic accidents in Moscow last year involving diplomats. It said a Russian woman had suffered serious injuries in the accident.
A Canadian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters Russia had not asked for the Canadian woman's diplomatic immunity to be waived. Diplomats had met with the victim to discuss payment of her medical expenses.

MOSCOW - A rising tide of heroin from Afghanistan has swept through Russia, with drug traders quickly spreading their operations across the nation's eleven time zones and distributing drugs among young children, a senior government official said Tuesday.

"A heroin attack from the south has become the most acute problem for us," said Alexander Mikhailov, deputy head of Russia's newly-established drug control committee.

In a move which highlighted the Kremlin's concern about the rapid spread of drugs, President Vladimir Putin set up the committee in March, naming Viktor Cherkesov, a longtime confidant and fellow KGB veteran, to illusion pearl necklace head it.

Soon after the new committee started work last month, officials reported the nation's largest ever drug bust - 420 kilograms (920 pounds) of heroin found in a truck stopped just outside Moscow. Mikhailov said Tuesday that the bust was worth over US$22 million based on market prices.

During the first half of this year, Russian border guards alone have confiscated 2.9 metric tons (3.2 tons) of drugs, half of it heroin, Mikhailov said at a briefing with foreign reporters. The amount of drugs seized probably accounts for roughly 10 percent of the actual flow, he added.

Russia has between 3 and 4 million drug users out of a population of about 145.5 million, and the consumption of heroin has jumped 23 times between 1998 and 2002, Mikhailov said.

He said that about 70 percent of heroin in Russia originated in Afghanistan, which accounts for about three quarters of the world's opium, the raw material for producing heroin. The opium production in Afghanistan has skyrocketed since the fall of the hardline Taliban regime, which successfully suppressed production.

After the U.S. troops flushed out the Taliban in late 2001, impoverished Afghan farmers quickly turned back to wholesale pearl jewelry pearl earrings wholesale lucrative poppies as their main source of income. "The U.S. military action in Afghanistan has effectively stirred a hornet's nest," Mikhailov said.

According to U.N. estimates, Afghanistan's opium production was unlikely to fall significantly this year from 3,400 metric tons (3,747 tons) last year, despite a government ban on the crop.

A steady flow of Afghan drugs pass through Central Asia into Russia, easily seeping through virtually nonexistent ex-Soviet borders.

Impoverished Tajikistan has become the primary transit route for Afghan drugs, despite the presence of more than 10,000 Russian border guards trying to stem the flow. Cherkesov, Mikhailov's boss, went to Tajikistan Wednesday to sign a bilateral agreement on closer anti-drug cooperation.

Unlike the recent past, when drug consumption was mostly confined to Moscow and a few other big cities, drugs are now increasingly spread throughout the Russian provinces.

While Moscow, St.Petersburg, the Baltic enclave of Kalinigrad and the Ural Mountains' regional capital of Yekaterinburg have remained the main drug hubs, many small and medium cities have also developed a drug habit, Mikhailov said.

Official corruption has helped encourage the drug flow. "Criminal investigations in the Rostov and Yekaterinburg regions have revealed that police were part of the drug business," Mikhailov said.

Drug prevention programs are virtually absent in Russia, and the disappearance of Soviet-era government-funded sports and recreation facilities has left children with more unsupervised spare time and therefore more vulnerable to drugs.

School principals aren't held responsible by law for failing to pearl strand wholesale prevent the spread of drugs, which has contributed to their negligence, Mikhailov said.

"Drugs have already become a part of youth culture here," Mikhailov said. "We previously said that the most dangerous age for acquiring a drug habit was between 18 and 25, but now we talk about the age between 11 and 14."

MOSCOW - The dross of society strives for power in Russia and it is nearly impossible to stop, Anatoly Chubais, a co-leader of the pro-reform Union of the Rightist Forces party told a news conference in Moscow on Wednesday. But the nation still has time to take one last attempt to pearl beads prevent it from taking the helm.

To all appearances, the rightists have been impressed by the results of the latest opinion poll carried out by the Public Opinion Foundation. According to the survey, the Rodina (Motherland) bloc enjoys support of as many as 9 per cent of voters. Such a doubtful increase in popularity of the bloc whose rating only recently stood but at 2-4 per cent prompted SPS co-chairmen to proceed to action. On Wednesday they convened a news conference at the Interfax office and announced that never before had Russia faced such a “colossal”, “unprecedented”, “large-scale” and “horrifying” problem.

“The authorities artificially spread class hatred, provoking vile nationalistic and leftists trends in politics,” Boris Nemtsov began.

“There is nothing more destructive than the slogan “Russia for the Russians”, Anatoly Chubais said. “National Socialism has reared its head in the country, in the ugliest and most dangerous form as far as Russia is concerned. We are talking here about a force backed by a significant part of the law-enforcement system. What's more, the least qualified and the most aggressive one. Just listen to Mr. Kolesnikov [Deputy Prosecutor General]. You will never find such symbiosis of total ignorance, complete absence of any knowledge of the constitution or Russian legislation, and an incredible level of aggression. People should be sacked within 24 hours for making such speeches.” “Doing away with that mould” is the task the rightists are facing today, Chubais concluded. Otherwise, the consequences would be disastrous.

Nemtsov augured that the new Duma would cancel deferments of army service for students and post-graduates, increase financing of the secret services, which in the long run would lead to a decrease in wages, and ultimately destroy Russia’s image abroad.

Should the national-socialists come to power, their main foreign policy course will be “territorial expansion”, Chubais said. According to Chubais, the political scandal that flared up around the Tuzla spit had shown “the level of primitive ideas of the Rodina bloc in the sphere of foreign policy”.

On her part, Khakamada cautioned that if national-socialists and fascists come to cultured pearl jewlery power, there will be no velvet revolution as in Georgia, everything will end in bloodshed, for it is always the way it is in Russia.

But the scariest result, according to Nemtsov, will be drawn at the presidential elections in 2008 when Russian citizens will have “to choose between the power and national-socialists”. To prevent the political crisis, the votes of 25 per cent of voters, who, as Khakahmada put it, “understand everything but never come to the polls”, are crucial. “Only please do not stay at home, come and cast your ballot,” Nemtsov urged the press.

“And what about the Kremlin, is not it aware of the threat?” the journalists inquired. “The Kremlin understands everything but is no longer able to do something. For, this is the machine, which, once launched, can never be stopped!” Nemtsov said.

SPS leaders tried their best to display high morale, but behind their bravado one could discern poorly disguised panic. The chances of Yabloko and SPS to clear the 5 per cent voting threshold at the forthcoming elections to the State Duma are as low as ever, Anatoly Chubais admitted sadly at the end of the conference.

In their conflict with Vladimir Gusinsky's Media-MOST holding, the authorities have the support of two state TV channels – ORT and RTR. According to a Kremlin source, both companies were ordered to give positive coverage to the Prosecutor General's Office in its war against NTV.

The two channels obeyed the orders from on high – in their reports on the situation with NTV, almost all the commentary comes from representatives of the Prosecutor's Office. Top officials such as Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov and his deputy, Vasily Kolmogorov, have become frequent guests on the two channels' interview programs that follow the evening news broadcasts. They get to pearl jewelry set out their side of the story on the air, while the other side – journalists working for Media-MOST or the company's lawyers – are never invited.

But it would be simplistic to say that the state channels are merely obeying the order to sink NTV and Gusinsky. By giving law-enforcement agencies favorable coverage, the two channels are also helping to insure their own futures.

ORT, for example, directly depends on the Prosecutor's Office, which at any moment could decide to continue, or to freeze, investigations into a case involving ORT's alleged nonpayment of customs duties on videocassettes it imported from abroad. RTR, for its part, has been spared so far by the Prosecutor's Office, but it has even more sins to hide.

At the beginning of February, the Chamber of Auditors revealed the results of audits made of VGTRK (the company that runs RTR) for 1998-99 and the first half of 2000.

A look at the auditors' report shows that if the Prosecutor's Office measured VGTRK and Media-MOST by the same yardstick, VGTRK would have long since been declared bankrupt. Its chairman, Oleg Dobrodeyev, would be under investigation and Media Minister Mikhail Lesin, who worked with VGTRK since its creation in 1991, and was largely responsible for its financial matters, would be sitting in prison. Even as media minister, Lesin has continued to play an active part in the company's financial activities.

The auditors report that VGTRK's losses are increasing every year. In the last six months alone, losses totaled almost $200 million. This is despite budget financing over the same period amounting to akoya pearl jewelry almost $100 million and loans from commercial banks totaling nearly $122 million.

Most of the loans and the budget money (almost 62 percent) went to paying old debts and interest on debts. The rest is covering current expenses. The auditors reported that the loans made to VGTRK were obviously higher than what was strictly needed and that the loss-making company used them, for example, to purchase expensive foreign cars and buy securities.

The company's advertising revenue hasn't, and won't, be enough to cover its debts in the near future. Over the last year, NTV earned $60 million in advertising revenue, while VGTRK made only half that figure. Auditors reported that VGTRK made $14.3 million in advertising revenue over six months. This is because the revenue has been going instead into the pockets of its advertising partner, Videointernational, the company founded by Lesin.

Independent research centers estimate the Russian TV ad market at $270 million, of which VGTRK has a 20 percent share. Even after paying the usual 15 percent commission to its advertising partner, the company still should have made at least $22 million over six months.

Ad revenue accounts for just 17 percent of VGTRK's budget. For any regional company, the ad-revenue figure would be more like 80-90 percent. This means VGTRK cannot count, either now or in the near future, on ad revenues as a source of money from which to pay its debts.

But this is precisely the "crime" Media-MOST is accused of. Investigators say Media-MOST took out a multimillion-dollar loan without having the funding to pay it back, though, as already mentioned, NTV's advertising income is twice as high as that of VGTRK. Committed by a private company like NTV, this "crime" results in arrests and seizures; committed by a state company, it leads to new flows of financial assistance and tax breaks.

As of July 1, 2000, VGTRK owed taxes of 132.9 million rubles. But no one is asking VGTRK to illusion pearl necklace pay its tax debts. Indeed, the state wants to "forgive" the company its debts and pay them off using budget money. One can only imagine what fate would await a private company that had such tax debts.

According to its charter, VGTRK's primary aim is to make a profit – it is a commercial company. The difference is that it is in a highly privileged position with unjustified tax breaks, huge injections of budget money, countless loans and no control over their use. The auditors even wrote that "the founder of VGTRK – the government of the Russian Federation – has, in essence, not established effective control over the work of its company."

By providing the hard figures on VGTRK's finances, the Chamber of Auditors has essentially put an end to the debate on whether the conflict with NTV is economically or politically motivated. Of course it's political. After all, VGTRK is in a much worse-off situation than NTV, but there's no sign of the Prosecutor's Office preparing an attack on the state channel.

The Russian business and economic situation is playing out like Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. Nothing is what it seems and the world's understanding of Russia gets more skewed with each passing day.

Few remember that corruption in this ten-year-old state is rooted in decades of criminal and oppressive communist regime.

Russia is still a hugely corrupt society. The line between big business ownership and the civil service is practically non-existent. Yet some in the Western media want us to believe that Russia's hopes now lie with transparent and well-governed oil giants – who, until yesterday, were looting the state.

The Russian oligarchs have spent millions on repainting themselves to hide their warts. Meanwhile, the West celebrates liberal Russian politicians who, in reality, are nothing more than public-relations executives for oligarchs, using their parliamentary positions to blister pearl serve their masters' interests.

In truth, a liberal politician in Russia attends U.S. Republican Party conferences, admires Margaret Thatcher and is unable to get more than 2-3 percent of the vote from any constituency. A centrist who attends the Labor Party conference in the United Kingdom is usually a bureaucrat-cum-politician such as Yury Luzhkov, who has suspect business interests and a massive state apparatus at his beck and call.

Most Soviet-directors-turned-millionaires and serving bureaucrats like to call themselves centrists while profiting from the rent economy of the country. Eighty to 90 percent of the vote is bought by these skilled apparatchiks.

The only remaining hope for true socialism is Grigory Yavlinsky, who never gets more than 7 percent of the vote, remaining more popular with his Harvard audiences than Russian voters.

The Communist Party, led by the vulgar Gennady Zyuganov, is an extremist movement of the dead and dying, now more brown than red. That said, several shades of the ultra-extremist vote are leached from Zyuganov by a horde of nationalists and fascists – who call themselves Liberal Democrats, among other funny names.

In the business world, the difference between Western perception and Russian reality is even starker.

The so-called "mafiosi" of the early ‘90s – aggressive kids who had been working in the black economy – were in fact the only entrepreneurs in the country. Many of them got involved in voucher privatization and then in land and asset grabs as point men for Red directors. Very often, these well-educated young people turned their guns on their masters and started acquiring businesses for themselves.

Most of these Soviet-era speculators-turned-mafiosi got into legitimate businesses such as retail and restaurants, while the more ambitious ones started airlines, banks and shipping companies. Former President Boris Yeltsin did not defeat communism; the entrepreneurial generation – oppressed under the Soviets – that sided with him, seeking an opportunity to create a life for itself, did.

Meanwhile, contract killings of the last two or three years have a telling pattern: Most of the targets are now politician-cum-bureaucrat-cum-businessman – current or recent government employees who rent out assets and siphon the revenues to their own pockets. People running now-legitimate businesses want nothing to do with crime and pay protection to pearl jewelry police and bureaucrats rather than criminals. The real mafia is the massive apparatus of government itself. The bureaucracy cannot fight the mafia because the bureaucracy is the mafia.

Within the state apparatus, there are divergent forces. Yeltsin's so-called liberal team believed in auctioning everything off and institutionalized corruption as dollars became its currency. But a number of "patriots," from non-communist academics to businessmen, KGB and military officers – including Alexander Lebed – who were relatively untainted by the massive asset looting of the 1990s, sizzled on the sidelines as the nation went to the dogs.

Many of them now believe in democracy and a free market and are lurching forward, taking a wary population with them, towards some form of cohesive, civilized nation. Putin and his ilk were seen in the mid-'90s by the Western world as the biggest threat to democracy, while communists like Yevgeny Primakov and Yury Luzhkov were seen as its hope. It could not have been further from the truth. Putin holds hope for democracy and, thankfully, Primakov is in retirement while Luzhkov is a construction manager, a job he is particularly good at.

According to businessmen, the Russian parallel economy (not necessarily the criminal one) is at least the size of the official 2002 GDP estimate of $350 billion, while unofficial estimates put it twice as high.

Not only does this parallel economy involve trading in expensive consumer goods, as widely believed, but also the traditional Soviet shadow economy.

Sending your kids to better kindergartens and higher education, drivers' licenses, birth and death certificates, fixing leaks in apartments – all were tradable goods or services in Soviet times when thousands of public sector servants prospered miraculously while working for nominal salaries. They still are.

Most of these services are the domain of municipal, regional or federal administrations that extort heavily from the public. The Soviet system of wheels within wheels is carefully preserved so that a Russian citizen spends a good chunk of his entrepreneurial life greasing the palms of the mafia/state.

The public, required as it is to feed this bureaucratic monster, feels no obligation to pay taxes. Double taxation, indeed, is in no one's interest. Bureaucrats prefer to take their bribes and rent directly from businesses rather than straightening things out and improving tax collection to get better salaries. Lowering taxes will not help because bureaucrats don't want to silver pearl necklace collect taxes for the budget. They just want to extort enough for themselves, thank you very much.

Undaunted by this truly Soviet system of corruption and extortion, a good part of the population is engaged in true enterprise. Most real entrepreneurs would happily pay their taxes and fulfill their social responsibility as soon as the government apparatus lets them.

The nominal government headed by Mikhail Kasyanov and his ministers runs 50 percent or less of the country's economy. Real enterprise is still in the shadows, waiting for a break from bureaucracy and extortion.

But don't cry for the ministers. "Transparent" big business always has a share for them, through some offshore entity or high-expense credit card issued by a foreign bank. So next time you see a politician in a designer suit screaming blue murder over small businesses who don't pay taxes – take a moment to consider who is who. After all, this is Russia, where nothing is what it seems.