Chapter 261: Business is coming

The old men spent a week in Moscow and basically used up all the spending amount of $20,000.

It’s not that the old men are too extravagant, but that many things here are indeed quite cheap. Due to the continuous depreciation of the ruble, the salaries received by many retired workers are not enough for a week’s consumption, and this situation is still continuing. Therefore, Russians prefer to accept strong people like the US dollar, which is naturally easy to negotiate in terms of price.

Therefore, the old men bought a lot of rare things and finally counted them. They probably needed to be transported back by charter flight, but after calculating the value of these things, how many times can they be increased after returning to China?

There are also some people from the Russian Institute who secretly contacted the old man, probably wanting to sell some research results, but most of them are civilian. After all, the military technical achievements are too eye-catching, and the officials are also closely watching them. Moreover, the people from the Institute do not believe that the old man can pay too high prices. Instead, civilian projects are easier to trade.

In this way, although there was no espionage, Fan Wubing and others returned with a full load. When he was happy, he booked a charter flight and transported the items back first.

After two days of rest, everyone boarded the plane to Kiev, Ukraine and turned south.

Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe. Its land area in Europe is second only to Russia, with a population of less than 50 million, including more than 100 ethnic groups.

Because the Communist Party of the Soviet Union has made serious mistakes in its decades of its establishment, the construction of democracy and the rule of law is weak, people's freedom is suppressed, and ethnic conflicts are seriously worried.

Especially in 1986, a serious melting and radiation leak occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine in the Soviet Union, causing serious consequences. However, at that time, the Soviet Union's official concealed the truth of the incident from the world and its own people at the beginning. After being exposed by foreign media and nuclear radiation testing departments, the Soviet Union's bureaucratic consciousness was widely criticized.

After Gorbachev came to power in the Soviet Union, various contradictions accumulated by history and reality began to become superficial, nationalism and national independence tendencies rose rapidly, and the national political situation began to turmoil sharply. At the same time, Ukraine began its independence. In 1991, the Ukrainian government issued a national independence declaration, officially declared its independence from the Soviet Union and changed its name to Ukraine. In December of the same year, the leaders of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus signed an agreement in Minsk, declaring that the Soviet Union no longer existed and the establishment of a community of independent states, and Ukraine's independence was finally completed.

However, the economic situation in Ukraine is exactly the same as that in Russia, the government is also very unstable, and the lives of the people in the country are very difficult. However, there is a different situation that Europe and the United States support Ukraine more. This is probably because it wants to bring Ukraine into the Western camp and become a sharp blade that is stuck in Russia's heart.

The Americans meant that they probably wanted to bring Ukraine into NATO member states, but Russia would definitely not sit idly by and watch such extremely unfavorable things happen. Ukraine would not make such extremely dangerous decisions for its own considerations, so foreign players from Europe and the United States are not so quick.

Therefore, when Fan Wubing and others got off the plane and came to the city, they found that there was a parade on the street, and a group of retired workers were holding placards and shouting slogans on the street. Of course, some of them were veterans wearing old Soviet military uniforms, and some were old Red Army soldiers who participated in the Patriotic War, with various medals hanging on their chests.

"I worked hard for decades and returned to the liberation overnight. These people's lives were really bad!" An embassy staff member next to Fan Wubing sighed.

"What's the solution? Anyway, I chose it myself to make an independent career, and I chose it myself to take the capitalist path. Now I find it wrong and regret it. It's too late. Everyone has to pay the price for their choice." Fan Wubing took a sip of the soju wine contained in a stainless steel wine bottle and said naturally.

"What do ordinary people know? Are you still being led by politicians?" the staff said disapprovingly.

Fan Wubing nodded, thinking that these words were reliable.

"How is your embassy staff's life like? Is there any guarantee?" Fan Wubing asked casually.

"It's right. The situation in China is not very good anyway. We are OK here, but Ukraine's prices are too high, especially consumables such as vegetables." The staff replied.

"Actually, you can get some daily necessities from China and then directly change them to consumables, which is very cost-effective." Fan Wubing suggested.

"This seems to be inappropriate, right? We are state employees after all." The man said with some uncertainty.

"Be adaptable, your stomach is your own," said Fan Wubing.

The Soviet Union implemented a highly concentrated planned economy at that time. As the most important energy and mineral base in the former Soviet Union, Ukraine was naturally a region with quite developed military-industrial enterprises. With the end of the Cold War and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the original production ties and industrial production system failed, causing Ukrainian economy to fall into chaos, and the political transition period also aggravated the domestic economic crisis in Ukraine.

Due to the lack of technical and financial guarantees and product market, most Ukrainian military-industrial enterprises have poor benefits. In addition to the loss of scientific and technological personnel in the defense industry, Ukrainian military industry faces many difficulties. In terms of weapon and equipment renewal, Ukrainian current funds can only maintain existing old equipment, and it is difficult to meet daily training. The serious shortage of funds has become the biggest obstacle to the revitalization of Ukrainian defense industry.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine inherited a large number of former Soviet troops, advanced weapons and equipment and strategic reserve materials, including 700,000 active-duty soldiers, more than 6,000 tanks, more than 7,000 armored vehicles, 1,500 aircraft, 350 warships, 1,200 intercontinental missile nuclear warheads, and 2,500 tactical nuclear weapons. The huge military strength makes Russia and the Americans feel that they should not be underestimated.

To this end, the Ukrainian government, which has experienced the pain of war, established denuclearization and disarmament as the main tone of future work from the beginning, and announced that it would pursue a policy of nuclear-free, neutral and non-alignedness and began to carry out large-scale disarmament.

At the same time, military-industrial enterprises in Ukraine have also accelerated the pace of military-to-civilian conversion, and converted the production potential of military-industrial departments in the national defense industry and machine manufacturing to civilian products and technological transformation.

During this process, many technical talents and old workers in military-industrial enterprises are facing unemployment and life crises, so these people can account for more than half of the marching teams on the street.

The convoy of Fan Wubing and others was forced to stop on the street many times, waiting for the long parade to pass by. Some people even knocked on their car windows and reached out to ask for cash and food.

"The consequences of rapid privatization--" Fan Wubing couldn't help but say.

In fact, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it left behind a large amount of weapons, equipment and military supplies to Ukraine, with a total value of up to 100 billion US dollars. Since 1991, Ukraine's foreign weapons exports have been very popular, such as many weapons used in the Middle East and African battlefields, which were lost from Ukraine. It is said that there are still several nuclear warheads missing.

Logically speaking, Ukraine will not be too poor if it sells a little weapon, especially if it is a resource-rich country, with abundant reserves of coal, iron, natural gas and oil, so it will not be hungry.

However, it is mainly because these resources are basically monopolized by the oligarchs. After several twists and turns, they have turned into private property. Most of the export of weapons is mainly resold through black markets. Although they were very active in the international arms market for a time, their income will definitely not be nationalized. Therefore, the lives of ordinary people in China are still a mess.

Ukraine is also very enthusiastic about this old man tour group from China, but they are obviously not as serious as Russia. Recently, the party disputes in China have become increasingly fierce, and no one cares about such social engagements. Therefore, officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs come to deal with it. However, the head of the Ministry of Commerce heard about the big deals of the tour group when it was in Russia. He was very enthusiastic about it and wanted to do some business and provide some benefits for his department. After all, many Chinese products are very popular in Ukraine.

Therefore, when Fan Wubing and others lived, the first person to come to the door was from the Ministry of Commerce, probably with the Russian side to exchange information. As soon as their people came, they came to Fan Wubing.

"Hello, Mr. Fan, I am Kashkov, Assistant Minister of the Ukrainian Ministry of Commerce." The visitor was a tall Ukrainian, but his words were spoken in Chinese.

"Assistant Kashkov's Chinese is very good!" Fan Wubing praised with a smile.

"I have a quarter of Chinese descent," Kashkov replied.

"Assistant Kashkov came to visit, there should be something to say, right?" Fan Wubing asked straight to the point.

Kashkov immediately replied, "I like straightforward Chinese people, I'm here to discuss a business."

Fan Wubing was stunned when he heard this. He brought so many people to Ukraine to poach, but who knew that people from the Ukrainian Ministry of Commerce also came to do business with him. What should I say about this?

"I am a businessman, but I don't know what kind of business I want to talk to with me about? Mineral resources and oil, although I am more interested in it, transportation is a problem! As for nuclear warheads, it is useless for you to sell it to me?" Fan Wubing said with a haha.

"I know Mr. Fan is a person who has a solution. Are you interested in the aircraft engine?" Kashkov secretly lowered his voice and asked Fan Wubing.

Aircraft engine?! Fan Wubing was stunned. He thought to himself, I came here to steal people and equipment, just to do some precision processing technology. Who knew that the Ukrainians were so enthusiastic. They were the aircraft engines as soon as they got started, and it was the government staff who were talking to him about business!
Chapter completed!