Becoming a Russian Oligarch After Rebirth
Chapter 780: The Competition Begins_1

Chapter 780: Chapter 780: The Competition Begins_1

"I’m very dissatisfied with the current economic environment. I personally believe it’s primarily caused by two things. On one hand, there are those who are incompetent, doing nothing..."

A familiar voice came from the television, Wang Ye recognized it without even looking, this was Khodorkovsky’s voice!

How did his "dear uncle" get on a TV program, and furthermore was criticizing heavily...

Wang Ye turned his head and sure enough, it was Khodorkovsky, who was being interviewed.

He checked the symbol of the TV station, it was a national-level one, quite influential in Russia.

Of course, it belonged to the private media, no less influential than the "official media".

Wang Ye frowned, he knew exactly what it meant for this kind of interview to appear on TV.

In the past, Khodorkovsky had rarely chosen to show his face publicly, and almost never accepted TV interviews, why is he appearing on a TV program to discuss the economy now?

An idea popped into his mind, he whispered to Rossiyana, "Didn’t you work for a news agency before, you should know many people in the media circle, right?"

"Of course, I know almost everyone in the major media, newspapers, and TV stations." Rossiyana said proudly.

"Then could you help me find out this afternoon, does my uncle Khodorkovsky have any media interview programs arranged for some time in the future, and at the same time count how often he and the core members of his new faction have appeared in the news media recently." Wang Ye instructed as he thought.

He had a hunch, it seemed that he understood what Khodorkovsky was trying to do.

Rossiyana nodded to indicate that she had taken note of it.

......

After returning to the office after lunch, Rossiyana was busy contacting media friends and gathering information.

It wasn’t until almost the end of the workday that she rushed back to the office to report to Wang Ye.

"Boss, I’ve got most of the information. Apart from some irrelevant small media that I couldn’t contact due to lack of acquaintances, I’ve asked all the larger media outlets.

Your uncle Khodorkovsky, or rather their faction, they have been pouring money into the media in the past few days."

Wang Ye asked in astonishment: "Pouring money into the media? How so?"

"They have reached cooperation with many TV stations, radio stations, newspapers, and magazines, using sponsorship, buying advertising slots, customizing programs, and other ways, it’s like they are paying for advertising to promote their faction. The interview you saw at noon today is one of their cooperative content..."

As Rossiyana was telling him, Wang Ye finally had a clear outline, verifying his guess.

However, all he could do was shake his head and smile bitterly.

This is something he can’t prevent, nor does he have a reasonable excuse to intervene.

Many media outlets are private capital and need to make money. As long as someone is willing to pay, as long as it is not illegal, then the more the better.

If he intervened, he might cause a backlash from the public...

But by doing this, isn’t Khodorkovsky attracting more attention from Gavriil and his group?

This...

In Wang Ye’s view, this is asking for trouble!

If he could persuade him, Wang Ye would have tried. The problem was he did try to persuade Khodorkovsky several times, but he wouldn’t listen!

Surrounding him furthermore would be a bit annoying...

......

Seeing Wang Ye’s grim expression, Rossiyana mistook his concern for fear that after Khodorkovsky’s faction grew larger, it would squeeze their faction out of place in next year’s election.

That’s why Wang Ye was a little worried.

As for the complex relationship and affection between Wang Ye and Khodorkovsky, honestly, outsiders usually could not understand it.

Rossiyana was no exception. Some days ago, after Wang Ye and Grezlov issued a joint statement, she even thought that Wang Ye and Khodorkovsky had fallen out.

So she suggested, "How about... we enter the election early and have a contest with them! If it’s just about spending money on publicity, we are not afraid. Even if we can’t prevent this new faction from rising, but we can seize the second faction’s position."

Wang Ye laughed dumbly. He had to admit, there was no problem with Rossiyana’s thinking.

The number of seats in the Duma is fixed, but which seats belong to which factions, that’s definitely not fixed!

Today it’s our turn.

Now, Wang Ye’s faction was classified as the third faction in the Duma, but after next year’s election, it might not be the third faction anymore.

Perhaps it might fall to become the fourth faction.

Or it might progress a step to become the second faction!

You never know...

Wang Ye felt that her idea was not bad, and nodded:

"Not a bad idea. When I became the party leader, I had promised the members of the faction that I would take out some money to help them run for the next term of the Duma members.

I originally planned to start the publicity campaign at the beginning of ’04, in half a year.

But since our opponents have already started, we should not wait any longer and start our action too!

That way, I will donate two hundred million US dollars to our faction in the name of the Xiao Ying Group to be used for election expenses.

As for what kind of publicity methods to choose, how to start, I’ll leave it to you to plan and manage.

One thing to note is, firstly, protect the backbone of our faction, ensure their exposure, and make sure we can secure next year’s Duma seats.

Also, we need to bring some new members into the faction, even if we are still the third faction in the next Duma congress, we should have more seats, not fewer!"

This was also one of Wang Ye’s planned countermeasures.

Since everyone is vying for next year’s election, of course, he is not considering the highest position, but he does have some thoughts on the seats in the Duma.

Who says his faction can only rank third?

Can’t it move forward one place and become the second faction next year?

Even if it fails to compete with the second faction, can’t it grab more seats...

Under his leadership, the faction can’t be getting worse and worse!

When he was the party leader, this was his commitment to the faction members!

He is not the kind of person who will break his word.

......

There are so many group companies under Wang Ye, especially cash cows like the Xiao Ying Group and the Siberian gold mine, it is absolutely no problem to take out several hundred million US dollars as election funds.

Of course, the richest is the Yukos Group, but even though he serves as the chairman, he doesn’t have an absolute controlling stake.

Plus, it was entrusted to him by Khodorkovsky, he would feel embarrassed to draw funds from there.

But there’s no problem with the Xiao Ying Group. As the only three shareholders, Wang Ye naturally would not oppose it. The other two shareholders also understand that there will be a return after this money is spent, so they wouldn’t have any objections either.

So, the Xiao Ying Group will pay this money.