After landing in Italy early Friday morning after an overnight flight from Riyadh, I thought I’d rerun a Rude piece from almost exactly two years ago.

First, we’ve been proven correct… and this piece proves it. Second… I really miss Russian vodka.

Enjoy this! And I’ll see you Monday with a fresh Rude.

——

I’ve been shaking my head at the stupidity of the sanctions the West has imposed on Russia.

Like a testosterone-filled teenage jock who’s just dumped his girlfriend, the West doesn’t think Russia will survive this.

It’s lunacy to think Russia is going to starve.

They’re going to adjust by iteration.

I’ve got anecdotal evidence that’s already underway, as there are too many options these days for getting paid.

Will there be immediate disruptions to Russian enterprise?

Sure.

Finding solutions will cost time and money.

But once they’re found, Russian companies will have essentially de-risked themselves from the arbitrary Western banking system.

And, like I’ve said many times before, the only people who’ll get hurt by these idiotic sanctions, in the long run, are Westerners.

Let me start by returning to a lovely metropolis way up north.

Moscow, 2008

When I was a single man living in London, teaching the banking grads every summer, my hand was the first to go up when a foreign assignment came up.

I loved the travel, and I got to teach in San Francisco, New York, Dublin, Paris, Abu Dhabi, and Moscow.

Once I got to Asia, I expanded that list to include all the fantastic eastern hemisphere cities, such as Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, and Melbourne.

I even got to Lagos and Abuja in Nigeria for a couple of trips.

It's pretty wicked stuff.

Most of my colleagues weren’t interested in making the trips.

Some disliked travel; some had families they didn’t want to leave for a week or two at a time.

Me?

I was always up for it.

I taught in Moscow four times between 2007 and 2008 before the world learned what “Lehman” really meant.

My favorite watering hole in Moscow was at the top of the Swissotel at a bar called CityScape.

It was the highest bar in Moscow then, boasting a panoramic view of the city.

I loved looking out at the Seven Sisters, a group of skyscrapers built in the best Stalinist style.

And my bartender was a gentleman of particular taste.

Inevitably, his name was Vladimir, and he taught me the proper way to make a martini.

If you want the best martini in the world, you’ll probably have to rush to the store to get the last bottles of Russian vodka.

Most like Russian Standard vodka, but my favorite is Imperia Standard vodka.

You’ll never look at vodka the same way after drinking this martini.

Ingredients:

Imperia Standard Vodka

Noilly Prat vermouth

Lemon peel

Ice

First, put ice cubes in your martini glass to chill it.

Then, fill your mixing glass with ice.

If you’ve got a proper American bottle top (the one with the hole in it), this next step will be more straightforward.

Pour a twelve-count (or three shots) of Imperia over ice. Then add one drop of Noilly Prat vermouth.

To get one drop, hold your finger over the hole in the bottle's top and let the drop fall out.

Do NOT rinse the martini glass out with the vermouth. You’ve got ice in right now, and it makes the drink too sweet. Trust me, you’ll fall over after a few.

Then, take your stirring spoon and gently stir the mixture. Real. Slow.

Do NOT shake the martini. When Ian Fleming wrote James Bond, he wanted Bond to be imperfect. Shaken martinis are a faux pas, not a sign of sophistication.

Then, dump the ice out of your now-chilled martini glass.

Strain your stirred mixture into the martini glass.

If you’ve measured correctly and have the right-sized martini glass, you should fill the glass perfectly.

Finally, garnish with a lemon peel.

(Olives go better with gin.)

Et voila!

You’ve got the cleanest, simplest, and best cocktail on earth in your hand.

Funny that. An American-designed cocktail with Russian and French ingredients. Numero Uno.

I ran up an $800 bar tab with my buddy on the martinis and caviar one night in that bar.

Vladimir was impressed with my American-born liver.

Iteration

The vodka, seafood, and diamond ban will cost Russia a grand total of $1 billion.

I don’t mean to be sarcastic, but most Americans think Absolut and Grey Goose taste good.

My God!

So, those exporters will feel some pain, but it’s more like Dr. Evil’s pain than world-ending pain.

And that’s where iteration comes in.

My good friend and mentor, Hunter Hastings, runs the Economics For Business podcast. 

It’s a treasure trove of excellent business advice. And it’s free!

Hunter’s recent podcast with Rory Sutherland, the Vice-Chairman of Ogilvy UK, is unmissable.

I was on Hunter’s podcast a few years ago when we talked about iteration.

The key point I made was that entrepreneurs learn that they’re wrong daily.

Every fork can be re-taken.

Every initiative can be improved.

Every left turn can be rethought as a right turn.

Keep iterating.

And that’s what every Russian entrepreneur with international exposure is doing right now.

One particular writer I subscribe to proved it’s pretty easy to do.

Club Orlov

I discovered Dmitry Orlov on Russia Insider a few years ago and read his articles occasionally.

I didn’t realize he had a subscription-based writing business until a month ago.

But when I found Club Orlov, I immediately subscribed via SubscribeStar, a platform similar to Patreon.

I always disliked Patreon, especially when they started deplatforming writers I follow.

But any centralized platform is a risk these days.

(Is substack next?)

Anyway, Dmitry sent a message via Club Orlov saying he was leaving Patreon and SubscribeStar because he couldn’t get his USD revenue into Russian banks, thanks to the sanctions.

So, what did this innovative writer/entrepreneur do?

He left detailed instructions on canceling my SubscribeStar subscription and resubscribing via Boosty, a platform I had never heard of before.

And so I did.

Boosty took my credit card just fine, and now I have access to the new Club Orlov.

Sanctions evaded.

Yes, it was *that* simple.

Wrap Up

If a St. Petersburg-based writer can change directions on a dime, you can bet bigger organizations will figure it out sooner or later.

And with China, Iran, and India not playing Washington’s game, there will be much more of this.

I know it’s only one anecdote.

But if he’s doing this, so are many others.

So, let’s hope Washington, London, and Berlin wake up.

The only people whom these sanctions will hurt are their people.

In the meantime, get on the Economics For Business podcast, try some Club Orlov, and buy some real vodka while you still can!

Have a great weekend!