Телеграм канал «SVIATOSLAV GUSEV»

5 years in prison. Another hapless entrepreneur ends up behind bars.

This time — Dima "Transformator" Portnyagin. He's probably the one I view most sympathetically out of all the bloggers who've been jailed in Russia. And it's not because he was a longtime client of my agency for many years, nor because for a couple of years we lived as neighbors in the "OKO" tower in Moscow City, where I crossed paths with him and Katya an endless number of times.

And since I have people with shoulder straps in my family, I usually don't speak positively about any individual who is under investigation or convicted. This case, naturally, won't be an exception.

But, on a human level, I feel sorry for Dima and Katya, because unlike hundreds of other bloggers, he didn't promote financial pyramid schemes, didn't promote casinos like streamers do, sure, maybe he sold courses (but the info-business is fine), tried to open clubs, restaurants, bathhouses (which is more than a normal, white-market, and quite respectable business). The phrase that fits here is probably: "Greed is the sucker's downfall."

That's just the kind of double-standard atmosphere we have in Russia. On one hand, the practically state-owned company VK invited stars like Pasha Tekhnik, who was literally walking drug propaganda incarnate, calmly invited streamers onto talk shows who had literally hooked hundreds of thousands of people on gambling addiction, receiving illegal money into their accounts without any sort of registered sole-proprietorship, and all of them live just fine, except maybe once a quarter they'll see a negative post about themselves from some public figures like Mizulina (but that's different: at MMA fights they advertise semi-legal bookmakers with online casinos, and everyone's cool with everything), while an entrepreneur who divided up his own business among his wife, mother, and a couple of friends, even after paying all the fines, penalties, and going through bankruptcy, still gets sent to prison. I'm not justifying anyone and I'm not accusing anyone, I just don't like it when the law is applied selectively.

And in my humble subjective opinion, financial-economic crimes, in principle, for the most part should not carry criminal punishment, provided there was no initial intent to defraud (as happens in those same financial pyramids or those same casinos). I also believe that prostitution should be legalized, as it was in Tsarist Russia. And the status "Escort" should get its corresponding OKVED classification code at the Federal Tax Service. The same goes for the decriminalization of soft drugs, because the number of people serving time in distant places under Article 228 is off the charts (and, as a rule, these aren't dealers but teenagers from troubled families).

Right before publishing this post, I deliberately looked up current statistics and scientific research online. And what I'm proposing has, on the whole, a positive effect on society, which is backed up by the facts.

⭐️ Not a day without a useful review

Continuing our revived rubric of useful and verified services. This time we have a bot operating in Russia with anonymous cards from the US, Singapore, and Hong Kong, issued by a Dubai-based company.

They work flawlessly, are issued instantly, and are anonymous (for this reason, top-ups are only available in USDT). Try the service.

Congrats to the Luxembourg lobbyists and to a friend of our family, Mikhail Fridman, on getting sanctions lifted by the EU 🇪🇺

Another businessman was also pardoned — Abramovich's associate, Usmanov. I'm currently in France, and it was mainly Paris that lobbied for all this, at least that's what local media here are writing.

This news somehow reminded me of the shows "The Gentlemen" and "MobLand", which once again proves the axiom that connections and money solve everything.

🇫🇷 Good morning.

On our business model: B2B vs B2C.

Welcome to Paris -_-

⭐️ You can use my promo code - "GUSEV", it'll get you a bonus when activating Premium.

Among other things, it unlocks access to creating videos with an AI blogger. Which these days is probably an indispensable tool for anyone who creates content in any way.

And in the meantime, I'll be expanding the list of services I use for you. Maybe by the end of the year, we'll manage to put together an impressive catalog.

How do I get my talking-head videos edited?

It used to be Final Cut, then CapCut with InShot and Captions, then Edits came along. Now, almost all of our videos are edited through Edit Cut Reels.

Why? Time. Everything literally happens automatically. It's no secret to anyone these days that authenticity and simplicity win. And reach depends on vibe — on whether the video hits the recommendations or not 😊

And this service edits with the algorithms in mind. They have a web version and an app, but personally I'm more into their tg-bot.

If you're focused and truly invest time and effort, you can make rapid progress.

One thing I've long believed: if you do more than required, put in a lot of time and energy, and go further than everyone else — not just one mile, but ten — you'll grow many times faster than anyone else. Most people don't go the extra mile, or aren't as focused, or move at a more sluggish pace.

I believe everything I've managed to achieve in life comes down precisely to focus and the willingness to do more than what's asked.
In the end, it all boils down to that.