The 10th international conference 'Expansion of Capital. From National Economies to a Transnational Economy' that is traditionally hosted by RosBusinessConsulting closed in Hong Kong. Kommersant reported about how Russian officials and businessmen got the insights of spiritual life in local pagodas upon their arrival to the conference in the issue of November 9. Alena Antonova, a reporter with Kommersant, watched the guests and participants of the conference relax after the sessions.

About half of the participants, among whom were two Deputy CEOs of Sberbank Alexander Altunin and Bella Zlatkis, Director of the Stock Market Operations Department of Sberbank Vladimir Nikonov, Senior Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia Tatyana Paramonova, Deputy Head of the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service Alexander Yegorushkov, Russian Presidential Advisor Andrey Illarionov, Board Member of the managing company Oil and Gas Assets Kira Lukyanova, Deputy Industry and Energy Minister Ivan Materov, CEO of Wimm-Bill-Dann Sergey Plastinin, Board Member of Far-Eastern Ocean Company Kirill Rubinsky, General Director of the Metropol investment and financial company Mikhail Slipenchuk, and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Rennaisance Capital Alexander Shokhin ate out in Hong Kong restaurants after sunset. They mostly enjoyed local food, in particular, tasted Beijing duck, until midnight. In general, local ducks, along with fried turtles, shark fin soup, octopus in sweet sauce and other Chinese delicacies satisfied the rather sophisticated Russian visitors.

The second group of participants, among which were Senior Deputy General Director of CROC Dmitry Vasilyev, top managers from Aton Capital Albert Gavrikov, Vladislav Vershinin and Khalid Dianov, heads of Swiss Realty Group Ilya Kononenko and Ilya Shershnev, lawyer Natalia Barshchevskaya, General Director of Familia Publishing and music producer Alexander Shulgin, top managers of Borodin's Meat House David Chikashvili and Vladislav Zakharian, Vneshtorgbank's Director Anton Grigorov, Editor-in-Chief of the Russian Investor magazine Dmitry Chernyavsky, top managers of Lockwood Greene Natalia Kasumova and Yekaterina Borisova, General Director of Maxima-Sonar Ruslan Zheludik, impressed the Kommersant reporter the most, as they were always in good sprits, energetic and looked very healthy. They deserved sincere aspiration as they didn't preclude themselves from a good dance, long walks around Hong Kong's skyscrapers, visits to flea markets, where Chinese versions of European brands are sold, every night and sometimes even through early morning. And at 9:00 a.m. they would all make reports and participate in discussions. It is worth mentioning that the participants didn't drink much, only to shake themselves a little and relieve stress after a day-long discussion of Eurasia's competitive advantages, Russia's investment potential and the impact of financial flows on the Russia's and Asia's economies. The most popular places for dancing and alcohol testing were the Neptune-2, Banana, 1/5, and Devil's Advocate night clubs.

For example, General Director of the Kommersant publishing house and lawyer Natalia Barshchevskaya shocked the locals by taking pictures of each other on the street and dancing on a bar chair right in front of Devil's Advocate. Mr. Kononenko and Mr. Shershnev astonished the sellers of one cheap clothing shop, as they paid for "a kilogram" of jeans, shirts and underwear with "platinum" credit cards. Some Russian guests preferred a close-up of Hong Kong transvestites and the latest trends in the VIP sauna business.

The Kommersant reporter witnessed an amazing conversation in the Grand Hyatt hotel. When YUKOS Chairman Viktor Gerashchenko was invited to a party with the Mummy Trol music group in the New Era night club he asked, who "mummies trolls" were. He got an answer and said that he would quickly run to his room to drop off his money and documents, and would be ready to dance and listen to the music. Mr. Gerashchenko didn't dance. He sat at the table next to Head of Wimm-Bill-Dann, David Yakobashvili, RBC's main executives Alexander Morgulchik, German Kaplun and Yury Rovensky, as well as General Director of Verysell Group Mikhail Krasnov, and General Director of Kuzmenkov and Partners Ilya Kuzmenkov. Mr. Gerashchenko was quite taken away by Mummy Trol, and even clapped his hands from time to time.

President of the Image Contact consulting group, political technologist and restaurateur Alexey Sitnikov was spending every evening with pretty women from Kazan, and became extremely serious at some of RBC's official events. For example, during the farewell dinner on the Bauhinia Cruise ship that was attended by the majority of the participants, Mr. Sitnikov suddenly put his glasses on, pulled out his laptop, and began taking notes. During other events, Mr. Sitnikov from time to time commented on the presidential elections in Ukraine, as he is involved in the presidential race as Yushchenko's election consultant. Talking to Sitnikov, both the Kommersant reporter and dozens of participants of the conference learned a lot about what to do and what not to do when electing presidents and other officials, and how inventive specialists can promote their candidates to the leading positions.

While on the plane back home, the Kommersant reporter concluded that the informal part of RBC's business conference was the part that brought people closer, and prompted the successful development of their businesses and the making of new contacts. In the middle of the 10-hour flight a big group of people from business class gathered together in economy class. Together with Viktor Gerashchenko businessmen and government officials proposed toasts to Chairman of the Board of the Transaero airline Alexander Pleshakov as he was flying on his own airline company and wished him a soft landing and a tailwind.