A late morning or lunch scene in the Lobby Bar and second floor cafe of the crowded hotel might find four or five Polish State Ministers meeting a Western Ambassador in a cordoned off section of the cafe while seven to eight easily recognizable TV and film stars would be scattered through the rest of the crowd. American and British businessmen making deals or loudly protesting Polish corporate tax rates while comparing notes about the pluses and minuses of hiring expats versus local talent for green-field start ups in the country made up the bulk of that noisy crowd. But, if one paid attention, it was possible to see that there were dangerous deals involving far-eastern former Soviet territory being done in the relative safety of that Marriott cafe and bar.
Re-organization schemes hatched by the nouveau rich Russians to offer 1/1000's of the real value of factories or distribution centers to former workers that had been given ownership "chits" in half-baked efforts to privatize Soviet industry were born in the Marriott Hotel cafe. Contracts with the Dutch to buy as much virgin timber as the local logging companies in Eastern Ukraine and Lithuania could manage (slightly radioactive of course) were being signed here. And, no doubt, contracts for Polish made armaments, tanks and bombs, were routinely being signed during this period when the Polish State was wrestling with its own problems of Western debt relief and currency devaluation. Keeping a new democratic country running during its most vulnerable time left a few holes for illegal and probably illegal (but definitely unethical) activity to exist at the edge of former Soviet anarchy near its borders in Poland.
***
Dmitri, a large, dark haired good natured Russian Kazakh with a wide smile and thick dark glasses, told us he liked doing business in the Marriott. He could bring professors and other academics from the universities and academies in Novosibirsk here without complication. Warszawa Centralna was across the street. First time visitors to the West could get on a train in far away Eastern or Central Siberia and make their way across the steppes in a week with a couple of station changes without great complication. Businessmen could fly Russian Aeroflot airlines from a dozen Siberian cities like Krasnoyarsk or Irkutsk to Warsaw Okecie airport with even greater ease...though a bit more costly. Dima - DEEMA - as he preferred to be called, told us he had a small flat near the Marriott and could walk there in less than five minutes. (I wondered if he had rented my old flat just around the corner from the Marriott. After three staph infections and a dozen mornings of cold water showers, I had walked out on the landlord without paying my last month's rent several months earlier.) Dima also told us that the "business opportunities" he represented were rather wide and were just now "beginning to avail themselves to the West". Having such a perfect place to do business on the border of East and West was his dream and he was beginning to live it out.
"So what are those business opportunities, Dima? Give us some idea of how you are combining the academics from Siberia with the emerging market economies and business there."
"Our meeting was for the high purity aluminum and titanium mentioned in the fax you received but perhaps a good introduction is a short story of some of the people behind the deal."
"Perfect! Thank you! Please carry on."
"Government officials from the former Soviet Union, managing directors of factories, and smart business people have crafted plans for marketing our product. People have been hired by this group to help carry out the plan at differing levels. These two groups make up the business side of this opportunity. These are people who had the vision to bypass the problems of our lagging infrastructure and non-existent market economy and go directly to buyers with a variety of products. For now, we are talking about titanium and aluminum and some other rare earth metals that were mostly processed and fabricated in the former Soviet Union."
"And the academic side?"
"I was just about to tell you."
"Sorry for interrupting."
"It's quite alright. The academic side is the whole group of participating scientists and research people that have access to the materials or are knowledgeable about our products to facilitate a transaction. Their actual roles vary widely from simply putting together a proper product description and offer on letterhead to coordinating permits, preparation, and transfer for transportation of material to a buyer. Because some materials may be very dangerous or toxic, their role can be extremely important."
"I think I'm starting to get it." I said. Artur, by now, has such a bewildered look on his face I can see him staring at the former Miss World, Aneta Kreglicka, who happens to be sitting a few tables away in a very short tight white dress with black Polish Army boots on. Having been focused on Dima for the past 15 minutes, I wasn't sure if it was Dima or Aneta that had caused his face to wrinkle as it had. I turned away from Artur to continue listening to Dima.
"Your titanium and aluminum are a special case, though. Since the late 50's and especially starting in the mid sixties, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd stages of Soviet-made rockets have been falling back to Earth onto the steppes of southern and central Siberia and some have fallen in the forests further north and east of the Baikonur Cosmodrome where they are launched in Kazakhstan. Most of the material that can be relatively easily gotten to is in the Altai region Northeast of the Cosmodrome. If you go to that area now, you will find farmers tending their crops or building their barns from material they have secured from a booster rocket or 2nd stage piece of a fuselage that suddenly landed in their field or knocked their house over. An almost surreal image for a primitive and remote people that have accepted that a 20 ton piece of metal might at any time come raining down into the middle of their village wiping out a whole family...or several families"
"I suppose that's why the United States and NASA decided on Florida's East Coast since the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean is probably a lot safer for dropping 20 ton surprises after launches." Artur inserted as he was getting more into the conversation.
"Precisely...but don't underestimate the Russian pride associated with being the bull's eye of the falling 1st stage Soyuz rocket during an important space mission for the Motherland!"
"Not to mention having the lightest and strongest titanium sickle in the whole country after you cut a piece of something off the debris." With that comment from Artur, I sensed he needed a break and suggested he go introduce himself to Miss World.
"Dima, who is the owner of that debris? Who are we buying it from?"
"Billy, I'd like to say that there are ownership papers and a contract can be drawn up but that would be a lie. In most cases, where the Russians or Soviets haven't come around to secure the debris, it is for whomever claims it or disassembles it and takes it away. With a few exceptions, it is the property of the owners or caretakers of the land that it falls on. If it is in the middle of a village, then the village divides up what can be divided. The technology and facilities for recycling this high purity metal are popping up in Western Europe. We just need to find it and get it there. I have maps and precise coordinates of every piece of debris that has officially and unofficially fallen back to Earth and landed in the former Soviet Union."
"So...are you suggesting that this is a deal without guaranteed terms and conditions? An offer to share an adventure seeking titanium and whatever else that has fallen from the sky? A fifty-fifty split on a treasure hunt in the far Eastern Asian Siberian steppes? And you have the Treasure Guide!"
"You are sometimes more poetic than I am, Billy. What a lovely picture you have painted of this adventure."
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