Russian entrepreneur Konstantin Borovoy is a public figure who is taking on communism with a vengeance by running for mayor.
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Konstantin Borovoy is Russia's Ross Perot, Donald Trump and Rush Limbaugh rolled into one dynamic package.
In sum, he is political and entrepreneurial. And he pulls no punches when blasting big government.``I hate Communists,' he said with gusto and a hearty laugh. ``It's what motivates me every day.'
Borovoy, 44, is considered a rising star in Russian public life.
He is now running for mayor of Moscow, and he does not deny that one day he might like to lead Russia.
He has set up Russia's first commodity exchange, created a political party, helped spawn at least 20 businesses and become one of Russia's first millionaires.
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He is left with one consuming dream that may be the hardest of all to satisfy.
``My ambition is to live in a normal country,' he said. Many Russia-watchers believe Borovoy may have the attributes to help bring normalcy to his country.
The foreign edition of the Wall Street Journal last month identified Borovoy as one of a dozen emerging global leaders likely to be shaping events in one decade.
``He is the first post-coup business success,' said Arnold E. Sherman, a former Kansas City businessman who is now president of Global Development Services Inc., a Virginia business consulting firm. ``He is not doing all of this because he is a megalomaniac, but he is doing it because he can.'
In recent days, the world has been preoccupied with the power struggle between Russian President Boris Yeltsin and the feisty parliament speaker, Ruslan Khasbulatov.
To many, both Yeltsin and Khasbulatov represent the past.
``The character of the Russian government must be radically changed, and politics must be democratized,' wrote one Moscow publication. Borovoy is out to produce such change.
He has come out of nowhere to his current position of business prominence.
A math professor by training, Borovoy started out operating a software company. When then-President Mikhail Gorbachev started easing government controls on the economy under perestroika, Borovoy leapt at the opportunity to become a pioneering entrepreneur.
In 1990, he began the Russian Commodity and Raw Materials Exchange, where speculators buy futures and options on such things as factories, steel and even bulk lots of sex manuals.
In the fall, he founded the Economic Freedom Party, which champions free market economics and could well become Russia's version of the Republican Party. The party's co-founder is Syvatoslav Fyodorov, a famous and wealthy eye surgeon.
Earlier this month, he granted The Kansas City Star a brief interview in his opulent offices not far from KGB headquarters, where police agents not long ago terrorized Russians.
On one wall is a picture of the Russian Orthodox patriarch blessing Borovoy's business. Directly in front of his expansive desk, a bank of television sets monitor newscasts.
``Russia is like an old machine that works bad,' he said, alternating between Russian, rough English and a machine-gun laugh.
Government bureaucracies are too massive. Moscow government, for example, employs 38,000.
``We have to change it radically,' he said. But like a seasoned politician, he declined to specify how deeply he would cut if elected mayor.
With the rush to convert state-owned businesses into private enterprises, corruption has become rampant.
There has been, Borovoy said, ``a dangerous criminalization of power.'
In Russia, there is still no concept of private ownership of land. ``But you can't buy a building in Moscow now,' Borovoy said. ``Try to buy a building. The president of an international bank has complained that it takes a $10,000 bribe to buy a building.'
For consumers, prices have skyrocketed and incomes have not kept pace. But the only thing to do is to stand back and let the economy fix itself, he added.
``The market must resolve it, not bureaucrats,' he said. ``It's going to take as much time as it takes. It is not a question of patience. Five years ago, people had nothing and now they also have nothing.'
Friends of Russia should not assume that communism is dead.
``Everything can happen here,' he said. ``Westerners feel we cannot turn back (to communism). We can. It's a dangerous thing.'
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