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| Yulia Barabasheva: A Moscow businesswoman, she works 12-hour days at her new beauty salon– sometimes closing up shop at midnight.
She feels intense responsibility for her 14 employees, who, she says, have become like a family to her. Melanie Stetson Freeman - staff |
Putin generation: Opportunity – and corruption – test a young entrepreneur
Yulia Barabasheva puts in long hours at her beauty salon, which she opened last April.
from the February 27, 2008 edition
Page 2 of 4
That shift toward broader prosperity, especially in Moscow, has been dramatic. In his first five years in office, Putin brought the poverty rate of his countrymen down to about 16 percent, according to the World Bank. Today, he said in a recent speech, it's less than 14 percent. Official figures put the middle class at about 20 percent of the population.
Barabasheva doesn't see herself as middle class, even though she runs her own business. In costly Moscow, she argues, people need to earn at least $15,000 a month to qualify, and she doesn't. She is evasive about her earnings, saying only that she earns as much as she can and shares a percentage of profits with her employers. "I stand on my own two feet," she says firmly.
Barabasheva has proved her mettle before. Born to teenage parents on the outskirts of Moscow and in her own apartment by 16, she passed high school by showing up just for exams, and worked in construction and a liquor factory before turning to nail design to make a better living. As she describes the pressures she has faced during a rare break from work, a radiant smile and animated demeanor suggest that her persistence and love for those around her have, if anything, been fortified.
"In order to live, I've got to believe in something," says Barabasheva, who keeps a photo on her desktop of her celebrating her parents' 25th anniversary with them. "And I really believe I can give a lot."
Working painstakingly under a fluorescent lamp, her arms covered in fine nail dust, she passes long hours trying to make her 100 regular clients – some 90 of whom are single women – "feel well inside." Her clients – doctors, entrepreneurs, and even top figure skater Elena Sokolova – leave happier, and not just because their hands are more beautiful, she says. They nourish her as well, she adds – enriching her mind with their experiences and expertise until she has a chance, someday, to finish her college degree.
Barriers of corruption
But the backstage of business in Putin's Russia is much messier, according to Barabasheva and other entrepreneurs. "The state structure is quite complicated, quite corrupted, and it requires a lot of financial investment and emotional investment," she says.
In a recent speech, Putin acknowledged such challenges. "To this day, it's impossible to start a business within months," he said, laying out his vision for Russia through 2020. "You have to go to every office with a bribe: firefighters, hospital orderlies, gynecologists, you name it. It's just a nightmare."
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