A stylishly dressed mountain skier was smoking a cigarette and enjoying the view of the Swiss Alps. The cozy town of Davos, which is a world-famous and very expensive resort, lies in the lowlands. Even a persistent aroma of dung from numerous farms in the Alps could not spoil the impression. "Wonderful:" The gentleman puffed out a cloud of smoke and, scolding quietly, picked up his mobile phone. A Rolex glittered on his wrist. "No, I can't speak. I am at a conference," the gentlemen told someone on the other end, threw the cigarette butt out into a white snowdrift and went down the slope.

A hundred and fifty Russian businesspeople, officials and politicians gathered in Davos at the end of the skiing season to discuss prospects with their western colleagues. The delegates celebrated their meeting in a restaurant, called Extrablatt. In fact, no uninvited persons were allowed to come there, while the guests were offered an asparagus cocktail with tiger shrimps and medium-fried duckling under a calvados dressing with red currant and apple caramel. Armenian brandy and wine were also served. However, the mix of mountain air and alcohol proved rather "perilous". There were a couple dozen vacant seats left in the building of the Davos congress center the next day.

Deputy Economic Development Minister Danilova was the first to make a report. Her speech started with disclosures: "Despite a high rate of growth, Russia is only in 76th place in terms of innovative work of companies." Everyone perked up: What new ideas can this envoy of the distant motherland offer? Thank God, there was nothing revolutionary: reforms are needed, and "independent producers should be given access to the infrastructures of natural monopolies." It was a matter of the same long-suffering pipe of Gazprom.

Traditionally, the West was criticized. According to Mrs Danilova, "western partners" are putting spokes in our wheels: they have imposed such tough restrictions on us on international markets that it does not pay to sell anything. The entrepreneurs nodded sadly. Some hope was reflected in their eyes when former head of the Central Bank and incumbent State Duma deputy Gerashchenko appeared on the stage. However, having started on a marry note ("the government has started on the course of doubling the GDP in 2003), he suddenly predicted a very likely default for businesspeople. Having heard the fearsome word, the Russians shivered. A deathly hush hung over the hall for a second.

Mr Rudloff, the chairman of the Executive Board of the British bank Barklay's Capital, had to cheer up his colleagues, who were nearly hysterical by that time. He was more optimistic, and he also condemned the West for unfair competition. Some of the listeners took his words with regard to Russian oligarchs with particular gratefulness. "We won't shed a single tear for the people who seized assets that belonged to the whole country during the dark years. And then they started to manage them frivolously." The financier was most likely to think about the owner of Chelsea at that moment, but he suppressed the desire to pronounce it. Talking with a correspondent of Argumenty i Fakty later the banker even added that people who are only able to "grasp and run away" could not, in fact, be called businesspeople. "A business is started from level zero for future development." Mr Rudloff mentioned the RosBusinessConsulting company, which was the organizer of the Davos conference, as an example.

Having heard a few more reports, the audience went to see a new model of Rolls-Royce, called Phantom. The beauty that has just been offered on the market was delivered there specifically for the Russian businesspeople to see. However, they were not in a hurry to pay half a million dollars for the luxury car. They choose to "dissipate" their money somewhere in the evening. Therefore, another party shook up Davos. It started in a mountain restaurant at an altitude of 2.5 km.

Having descended from the mountains a few hours later, the warmed-up Russians occupied bars and casinos, where they suddenly started to win large sums of money and pour very expensive French champagne on each other. Excuse my frankness, but a member of the "St. Petersburg team" (who, in fact, was a brewer) was spotted doing it too. Therefore, aboriginals of Davos once again had to stare at the unrestrained revelry and to look at the "enigmatic Russian barbarians" with amazement and envy.