Alexander Kozhin

Doing business is only meant for those who are ready to go all the way.

When starting your own business, one should never see his goal as achieving everything there and then, you might just overwork yourself at some stage.

Laziness is when a person either can’t do something or just doesn’t understand how to do it.

An average Russian person is beginning to acquire a kind of style when it comes to clothing, but majority of it is done by simply mimicking Western patterns as they are. There certainly are some outstanding individuals, but we tend to regard them as really weird people.

My most brightest impressions are caused by realizing that I can earn money and spend it as I please (laughs).

Family is my wife and everything that has to do with her.

I prefer big cars, SUVs, although right now I’m driving around in my wife’s tiny car, and I’m quite enjoying it.

Business meetings with suits and ties, generally, tend to take place after there’s already nothing left to sort out, as a mere formality.

The ultimate goal of my life is securing a comfortable retirement, which implies being able to afford travelling all over the world, like all the European pensioners do, and not having to think about tomorrow. But the end of my life isn’t something I like contemplating, really (laughs).

Don’t believe those who say that they don’t need to wear a mask when talking to someone, because it’s not true. It’s impossible to love your business partners and ways of interacting that are common to Moscow without that.

There’s no such thing as democracy in Russia, a mere name, which can, moreover, only be ascribed to the governmental bodies alone. I don’t like politics. That’s something I wouldn’t want to mess with.

I’ve started taking interest in the Thai boxing lately, it’s not that I go there to be strong or to get out in the street and beat someone up, it’s more of a self-discipline measure, a way of tempering myself.

A perfect present is when they call you and ask: ‘What should I give you?’

I prefer light movies, unburdened by excessive information. After all, movies are a means of entertainment. You don’t want to walk out of the cinema in a state of total frustration, thinking: ‘Right, so how am I supposed to live with this now?’ Same with music: certain Russian artists make one feel seriously suicidal.

Power is the only force capable of changing everything.

Running a restaurant business here is far more expensive than doing it in the West, because all the products we use are imported. A trivial example — we don’t drink wines from Krasnodar krai, because it’s unfashionable, never mind that some local wines are really good.