1021: Konstantin Samoilov | Putin’s Russia: An Insider’s Perspective

1021: Konstantin Samoilov

This transcript is yet untouched by human hands. Please proceed with caution as we sort through what the robots have given us. We appreciate your patience!

[00:00:00] Jordan Harbinger: Coming up next on the Jordan Harbinger show,

[00:00:02] Konstantin Samoilov: they're producing things that are either blown up or blow up and kill people. And it does not do any good to the economy. It sucks in the labor force. Imagine one school I. Every single missile costs as much $19 million as much as it to build a school.

[00:00:25] Jordan Harbinger: Welcome to the show, I'm Jordan Harbinger. On the Jordan Harbinger Show. We decode the stories, secrets, and skills of the world's most fascinating people and turn their wisdom into practical advice that you can use to impact your own life and those around you. Our mission is to help you become a better informed, more critical thinker through long form conversations with a variety of amazing folks, from spies to CEOs, athletes, authors, thinkers, performers, even the occasional mafia enforcer, neuroscientist, or Russian chess grand.

And if you're new to the show or you wanna tell your friends about the show, I suggest our episode starter packs. These are collections of our favorite episodes on persuasion and negotiation, psychology, geopolitics, disinformation, and cyber warfare, crime and cults and more. That'll help new listeners get a taste of everything we do here on the show.

Just visit Jordan harbinger.com/start. Or search for us in your Spotify app to get started today. A unique perspective on the United States and Russia from a man who's lived in both places. Constantine Somo love is a YouTuber who grew up in the Soviet Union, made it in America, then moved back to Russia only to escape after the start of the war against Ukraine.

I originally, I wanted to get a Russian perspective on the conflict. That's how I found Constantine in the first place. I realized there are many Russian perspectives, of course, but I thought his was insightful and well-spoken, his English is really good, was a great fit. We also take a look at Russia before and after the kickoff of the war.

How pass to success in life differ in Russia, the Soviet Union and the United States, and why the KGB is now following Constantine around, I guess you know, you've really made it when spies are chasing you around the world. Here we go with Constantine. Somo Love your channel inside Russia. Someone sent a Chau fan, maybe sent it to me.

That's how I found a lot of guests for the show. I think it was the video about how you escaped Russia. And before we get into that story, which I thought was fascinating, tell me about studying abroad in the United States. Because you grew up in the Soviet Union, which I didn't think had exchange programs with the United States, or maybe, maybe I'm getting the timing wrong here.

[00:02:21] Konstantin Samoilov: They started doing the exchange programs in late eighties. Okay. And come nineties. All kinds of programs were, and I remember I was sitting in 1996 and I won my ticket, so to speak. I won a competition to go and study in the USA for one year. And I was sitting in a large hole and there was a guy from state department who was taking care of our visas and telling us, you know, the rules and an orientation session.

[00:02:51] Jordan Harbinger: What rules did you have? I'm curious. 'cause I was an exchange student and they were like, don't get arrested, have fun,

[00:02:56] Konstantin Samoilov: don't get arrested, don't get drunk. Get hurt because your insurance is not gonna cover it. Ah, everything else, just use your justice. I remember the guy telling us very serious, he goes, look, we had a problem with a kid going to the United States because you are 20 years old, you can legally drink.

So he was drunk while on the plane in Russia. From Russia, yeah. Russian exchange student going to the USA. He was, he got drunk while on the plane and when he appeared in front of an immigration officer, the passport control, he was, he was drunk. So we had to come in and bail him out. He goes, don't drink on the plane.

And then he winks at us and he goes, well, I recommend California Chardonnay. It's excellent. You know that, that kind of rules. I remember one, I was sitting, well, basically there were like, I don't know, a few hundred kids of my age, 20 years old, and we didn't care about anything else. We had one question, why?

Why are you paying so much money for us to go to the United States and study? And this fella looked at us all and he answered, because you go to the USA, you see the way we live, you come back and you will never be at war with us. Hmm. I still remember that answer shook me. I was like, okay, now I understand.

Everything is, uh, clear now.

[00:04:17] Jordan Harbinger: So this an American guy, a state department guy said this.

[00:04:19] Konstantin Samoilov: Yeah, yeah, yeah. State Department. Yes. Because I think the State Department paid $36,000 back in 1996, taxpayers dollars for me to go Wow. To move to the United States for one year and study. So my question was, why, why you feed me?

Why do you, you know, like I live in the on campus. Why do I go to school for taxpayers money? Why? And then he gave me a perfect answer where you go to the United States, you learn our ways. You come back, you will never fight in the world with us. And he was right.

[00:04:47] Jordan Harbinger: Yeah. For the Soviet Union, he was quite correct.

I guess there was no war there so far and there's still, yeah, I guess we're not technically at war with Russia. Maybe an economic war and it could get a little worse. I guess. We'll see.

[00:04:57] Konstantin Samoilov: Not one single person who was a part of that exchange student supports the war in Ukraine. Not one. We're all anti-war activists.

I keep in touch with few people. I made friends back then and that guy was right. I wish everyone could have that experience as I did.

[00:05:15] Jordan Harbinger: That's fascinating. I, when I was an exchange student in Germany, former East Germany, the grandfather of that family was, he was 17 years old and he'd fought for Germany in World War ii.

He himself was not a member of the Nazi party or anything. He was just like a low level grunt. People are always like, oh my God, your exchange grandfather was a Nazi. It's a little different. They were like Nazi believers. And then there were kids who were like, I got drafted. I guess I'm gonna go to the front lines.

It's a totally different thing. I told him I was Jewish and American and he was like, oh, okay. Wow. I wanna shake your hand. I've never shaken an American's hand before. But he was a prisoner of war and they sent him to Maryland and he was like, it was great. He's like, yes, I was in prison, but the food was amazing.

And he's like, the Americans were actually really nice to us. A lot of 'em were our age. I learned some English, we played cards all the time, even with the guards and with each other. And they didn't beat us up. They didn't treat us bad or anything. And he's like, I really would love, would've loved to have seen more of the United States.

This is a guy who was in prison, a military prison in the United States. And his thing was, man, I wish I'd seen more of the country before they sent me back to Germany. That I thought was a very bizarre experience. 'cause he had his years abroad, but it was a, wasn't the same as what you experienced most likely as an exchange student.

Had a different kind of exchange.

[00:06:28] Konstantin Samoilov: Yeah, very different. I had very different kind of exchange.

[00:06:30] Jordan Harbinger: So you have this unique perspective on the United States and Russia because we're such a hybrid of both worlds, including, like I said, the former Soviet Union. So what was your first impression of the United States when you get off the plane?

Because I, I would imagine is part of you winning that scholarship? Did you show some proficiency in English or was it just like, Hey, you have good grades. Go to America if you want to.

[00:06:51] Konstantin Samoilov: I had a perfect A in America, it's considered perfect a record. You know, I had all A's Okay. Straight A's and the highest earner.

Yeah. Graduated with gold medal from school and all of us who were in that exchange program, we graduated with, uh, gold medals. My English wasn't that great or very basic because they didn't teach us good English. Just good enough to pass, you know, to get an a, to get ahead of others. When I got to the United States, I didn't understand anything.

So my mm-hmm. English skills were very, very basic. But you got to understand the situation in the us uh, in Russia in the nineties, I was growing up under the impression that the USA was the cradle of all evil in the world. Okay. Was bad. And then the world started opening up and I understood that the communists were lying.

I started asking questions, and then the floodgate was open. The late eighties, we started seeing American movies, programs on tv, and then the Soviet Union fell apart and McDonald's came in for goodness sake, you know? Yeah. And, uh, that was a huge, huge blow to communism. By the way,

[00:07:59] Jordan Harbinger: McDonald's, that was, that was one of the nails of the communism casket was like, I'm serious.

[00:08:03] Konstantin Samoilov: I'm serious. Because imagine for 70 years you are told that nothing good for people in the West. Nothing. It's darkness there. And all of a sudden you have something bright. Tasty. Nice looking people, smiling great colors everywhere and mm-Hmm. Atmosphere of happiness that comes from the west. And we immediately started asking questions, how come we don't have this?

We supposedly the best country in the world. We don't have this. What is going on? Yeah. You align to us. Something is bad. What was funny to see because I was um, like 15 years old, had the time and I was open about it. I was telling everyone, what the hell is going on? But the adults, they were ashamed that look the other way because they couldn't explain.

Okay. Mm-Hmm. So I would say there was a lot of food for thought McDonald's, uh, when it opened up. Mm. Like, good pun. Yeah. And then, and when we go to early nineties and we are in love with America, America is the best. You know, there's big American bands, Metallica, the Scorpions, banjo coming, and I.

Atmosphere of happiness. Okay. We're finally friends. We finally, we, Russians are finally accepted into this atmosphere of like happiness, you know, of brotherhood of the world countries. We are finally there. We're not, you know, the evil empire any longer. Yeah. So I kind of saw the both worlds. But when I got to the United States, my first impressions answering your question were, I was shocked and I was amazed by so many things.

I was amazed by how the country was organized, how people were, how things were run. I saw that I could have my own opinion and people respected that. And even if they had different opinion, they wouldn't beat me up. They wouldn't scream at me. Hey, you foreigner, you don't know anything that would actually be very polite and respected.

Say, Hey, I disagree with that. I think you're wrong, but I would die Defending your right to have your own opinion. Huh? Things like that were shaking. My entire existence. I was falling in love in the United States in my first weeks there, you know, because to this point I haven't seen it anywhere else. So that was my first impression.

I have so many other things too. It's just what you take for granted. I found absolutely marvelous and amazing. Free refills, man.

[00:10:28] Jordan Harbinger: Free refills. Yes. Yes. Uh, that's one thing that my European friends always go, I can't believe that when you're almost done or not even done with your drink, they just bring you another one.

And also the fact that the small drink is 18 times the size of the medium drink in Europe. It's like, no wonder everyone's or beast, we'll get there. Free ketchup. Yeah. And yeah, and free ketchup. It's like you don't pay for that. No, I, they give it to me and I put it back in the thing when I'm done. 'cause I, they gave me 18 packets and I needed two.

Yeah. I'm wondering, 'cause McDonald's, the bar is low, right? I mean, in the United States, McDonald's is like. Something you do when you're just like, crap, I only have eight minutes and I'm starving. I want some chicken nuggets before I go to swim class with my kids. It's that kind of thing. And I would imagine in Moscow going to that one, McDonald's was a big deal, right?

Save your money. Wait in line for the line. I remember seeing it on the news and it was like a six hour line when it opened to get a Big Mac and people were like crazy, mind blown. And this is probably the cultural elite who could even afford to go to that McDonald's in the first place. I don't know how it worked back in the Soviet Union.

Then you come to America and it's like, I don't wanna go to McDonald's because I have a choice of going literally anywhere else and enough time to eat, literally anything else. You know? It's like at the bottom of the food chain, so to speak.

[00:11:42] Konstantin Samoilov: Well, on my example, you can see how personal wolves, because McDonald's was a miracle for me back in 1919.

My dream was to go and have food at McDonald's, tweet at McDonald's. I remember I, I saw the very same news report that you did at the same time. Huge lines. To us, it was like a bomb. My parents were speechless. They didn't understand how could an American company open a cafe, join the restaurant in Soviet Union?

How is this possible? You know, on one side they're telling you this horrible things about the America, you know, they arrest you for things and then they open American restaurant. So we showed up at school last morning with my buddies and we were just speechless and they were just, we gotta go there.

We've got to save money. There's a plan. We've got to save money. And it was very expensive, unaffordable for us to go to McDonald's. But hey, we came up with a plan to save, to use freight trains to get to Moscow 24 hour ride for free, you know, to Wow. To have a meal at McDonald's. But you were gonna

[00:12:43] Jordan Harbinger: jump on the top of a train and and

[00:12:46] Konstantin Samoilov: like ride on it inside of this big trucks, empty trucks going north to Moscow.

Yeah. That was a plan. It didn't work out. That sounds dangerous. We were planning, yes. Oh my god. And then, um, I came to the USA and I had this thing from McDonald's. So McDonald's was never at early age years, it was never about food for me. It was about the image, about the lifestyle, about new life that I could actually touch, taste, be a part of it.

And then I came to the USA, I ate quite a lot of fast food 'cause I didn't cook back then. Well, yeah. And it was always McDonald's because of that, I had this image of, in my head, stuck in my head. But over the years, I, um, said goodbye to McDonald's and yeah, I rarely ate at festival joints and McDonald's was my bottom choice.

Sure. Okay.

[00:13:34] Jordan Harbinger: Yeah.

[00:13:35] Konstantin Samoilov: So, uh,

[00:13:35] Jordan Harbinger: I get that I'm with you. I'm curious, you, you mentioned in the video that McDonald's, one of the things that you were curious about was the person at the cash register, they would smile at you and, and that was novel. And you say people didn't really smile in the u in the Soviet Union.

What do you mean by that? That can't, they still don't tell me about that. 'cause I find that so hard to believe. Isn't it human nature to just smile at people? Isn't that a thing that people do without even thinking

[00:14:00] Konstantin Samoilov: In the USA Yes. In uh, Western countries, yes. But not in Russia. Hmm. In the USSR, you know, I thought about it a lot.

It's not much to smile about. Mm-Hmm. You only smiled when somebody might, would crack a joke or something good happened to your family, things like that. But I. No one smiled because what was there to smile about? I remember only after one year of living in the USA started smiling. Mm-Hmm. And I remember it was a cute girl living in a dorm and I was talking to my friends and she came by and she said, well, you know what?

You are Russian. This is the first time I see you smile.

[00:14:35] Jordan Harbinger: Yeah.

[00:14:36] Konstantin Samoilov: One year after, you know, I moved to the USA, so, uh, wow. Took a minute. McDonald's was their thing. They advertised and we always serve you with a smile. And we're like, wow. Wow. Where else can you get that? Literally, yeah.

[00:14:54] Jordan Harbinger: Forget the food. We gotta travel 24 hours on a dangerous freight train and risk getting arrested so we can see a 17-year-old girl smile at us when we order our food.

That's sort of a damning indictment of the mood of the Soviet Union at that time, at least in terms of the smiles.

[00:15:09] Konstantin Samoilov: Well, let me tell you, they weren't any 17-year-old girls working there. It was a career job. Ah, very well-paid job compared to others. Like engineers would quit their jobs and go to work at McDonald's to make more money.

Oh my God. It was very prestigious job in 19 90, 91, 92. Lemme tell you, that's uh,

[00:15:28] Jordan Harbinger: I can't imagine ordering fries from a, a heart surgeon. It seems like a waste of potential, right? Like, Hey man, thank you doctor. Yes, I will have fries with that. That's a man that always makes me kind of feel sad. Years ago, I remember talking with a gas station attendant in Michigan where I grew up.

It was Ramadan or something like that. And he was eating and I was like, oh, why are, you know, you're eating right now? It's so late. And he's like, oh, Ramadan. And I got to talking with him and he explained to me that he moved to Michigan to open up this gas station because his brother had a gas station and it, it was like his business.

And back in his home country, which I think was Pakistan or Bangladesh or one of those, he was a surgeon, but in America, he ran a gas station. And I was just thinking. You know, do you regret moving? And he's like, no, it's much better. My life is better here. His life is better running a gas station in America than it was being a doctor, a surgeon in his home country.

And I just thought like, gosh, what is that place like for normal people?

[00:16:23] Konstantin Samoilov: Well, look, you don't have to go far. Come to T 2024, you'll find a brain surgeon here trying to get to the United States. And he reached out to me, he said, how do I become computer tester? I said, why? Well, that's the only way I know how to get to the USA.

I wanna change my profession to be the tester. He said, and what do you do for a living? What did you do in Russia? Well, I was a brain surgeon. Ah, like experience. He goes, yeah, like 1500 hours of surgeries. Wow. So it does happen even now in Russia. So you don't have to travel back to 1990 to McDonald's to see that.

Plenty of engineers, doctors, some doctors work as doctors, but they're paid, you know, peanuts here in Uzbekistan, but they still don't wanna go back to Russia. Everyone is trying to make it to one of the Western countries. I wanna talk

[00:17:14] Jordan Harbinger: about why you're in Uzbekistan in a minute, but tell me about your first job in the United States because you, uh, you went after it like a champ,

[00:17:21] Konstantin Samoilov: man.

Uh, good memories. Good memories. My first job was, I was a parking lot sweeper. Mm-Hmm. I didn't

[00:17:30] Jordan Harbinger: even know that was a thing, by the way, but I guess you were near the water, uh, near the beach.

[00:17:34] Konstantin Samoilov: If you are in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, and uh, you are right next to the beach, there is a bunch of scent dunes and the wind blows on shore all the time, so it just blows wind in the parking lot right next to the dunes.

And it's always covered with thin layer of send. And there's a job there at every motel. They just, people go back and forth and sweep parking lots, perhaps now they have robots or, I don't know, vacuum cleaners or something like that. But, but back then it was good old broom. Okay. And me, it was May I landed my first job in May.

And I loved it because it paid me like, I think it was six or $7 an hour and I was working legally. 'cause my visa allowed me to work. I had, um, tape recorder, no CD players back then yet. So you had a like a Walkman? Yeah, yeah. Like Walkman with a tape in it. I listened to music from morning till night and all I did, I was just going back and forth sweeping the parking lot and I was loving it because I was making in two or three days more than both of my parents with high education and degrees were making a month in Russia back in 1997.

So Wow. I absolutely loved my job and then I got the opportunity to see what America is all about at that job. And I think I finally fell in love with a country back then. That was a day when someone didn't show up at the hotel, at the front desk, like a clerk manager, front desk manager. And there was no one around.

Okay. And our manager, she was looking for anyone to cover. And then she looked at me and I was the only one sweeping parking lot. Mm-Hmm. So she ran to me, said, let's go help me out at the desk. And she basically told me to stay at the desk. And I was very nervous. I could barely speak English, you know, I didn't know anything about Yeah.

That kind of job. And she said, don't worry, it's a slow day and if you have a question, a telephone number, give me a call and I'll explain everything. I'll even speak to guests. Said, okay. And then she said that she'll pay me like a dollar extra, made some kind of bonus for me. Okay, fine. So I was covering and I was alone at the hotel.

I was off season in Maine, it's still cold, but somehow like in midweek, people started showing up. I. I did not turn anyone down and I would go extra mile to sell a room. Let's put it this way. I, I really liked it. I really liked talking to people and they were so friendly. That's another thing about Americans, you are so friendly.

If person you know doesn't speak English much, you never say like, oh, your English is terrible. No. So, oh no, say it again. Oh, that's fine. Where'd you come from? Oh, how do you like the United States? That type of thing. And everyone was just cheering when they saw that I was trying my best and they were very nice and I loved it.

And I would take everyone by hand and I would just go and show the room because I couldn't explain what the rooms were about. Right. And the rooms were pricey 'cause we were right on the beach and I was telling them that, look, you can go. I was trying to tell 'em, at least using my hands, fingers, and everything.

So body language, you can go across the street, pay a little bit. I. More, but how many chances do you have to do this? And I would sit them at the lounge chair, have them look over the beach and sun setting and they absolutely loved it. And you see, I loved it. The first time I saw the ocean was in Maine.

Absolutely loved it. And I was showing them what I loved doing, and they were taking rooms and I sold like half of the hotel.

[00:21:13] Jordan Harbinger: Yeah.

[00:21:14] Konstantin Samoilov: I remember the next morning the manager showed up. She was absolutely amazed. And the same thing happened like second day, third day. I. And then everything went back to normal.

I still don't know why people were, you know, buying rooms from me staying at the hotel. Perhaps they felt really sad and sorry about me trying to sell out so hard, you know? Yeah. Like,

[00:21:36] Jordan Harbinger: this guy must get paid commission or something. We better stay here just one night.

[00:21:40] Konstantin Samoilov: Ah, you know, help out this Russian guy who can barely speak English.

Things like that, you know?

[00:21:44] Jordan Harbinger: Right. Like, we feel bad leaving, he's gonna take it personally. That's funny, man. So you're making like 700 bucks a week and your parents are making, what, 300 bucks a month combined?

[00:21:54] Konstantin Samoilov: Yes. Yes. Let, let me get to that. What's the funniest part happened next? Okay. I literally exhaled. I was like, whew.

Everyone showed up. Everyone got better, not sick anymore. And a couple desk managers doing their jobs. So now I take my broom and I go, mm-hmm. To sweep my parking lot. This is what I do best, right? Yeah. And then as soon as I walk outta the office, I see, um, the owner of the hotel. Pulling in. And I said, how did you sell the rooms?

And I told him how I was selling rooms. And he said, well, you know what, we have this guy John, and he's great at sweeping parking lots. He's even better than you are. Okay. And he is gonna be taking your job, but I want you to work at the desk and keep on selling rooms. I said, no, no, no, I can't do that. I don't speak English.

I can't sell rooms. He said, come on. He was like, you know what, I'm gonna give you a raise. I'll pay you a dollar more an hour, Uhhuh. And I was like, wow. You know? So yeah. So this is how I started, uh, my career basically. And I started selling rooms and I was selling them a lot. And when the owner bought another hotel and he sent me to go and kind of like set it up.

And I remember I walked in, I was a manager, an older guy in his, almost his fifties, and it was a son of a mayor and he was reporting me. He was writing down what I was telling him. Okay, Ray, you're his boss. Oh my gosh, and how old are you? Like 20. I was 20. I must have just turned 21. Right. I was thinking right then.

There was a moment I remember I was thinking, you know, this country is absolutely great because they value your hard work and what you do, they don't value who you are, where you came from. You speak English or not this opportunity for everyone. This is really the land of opportunity, right then, right then I fell in love with the USA, the best country in the world.

[00:23:46] Jordan Harbinger: You contrast that with, uh, this American system of like moving up because of your work ethic, whatever you wanna call it, to the Russian blood. System. Tell me about the blood system because I, I think a lot of people, a lot of people accuse America of having this and sure we have nepotism and you know, sometimes people hire their friends or protect their friends, but it's a totally different world from how things work in Russia according to your videos.

[00:24:09] Konstantin Samoilov: Absolutely only not blood, but it's a Russian word, blood T at the end blood. Oh, I really didn't put that together. I thought you meant blood. It's really hard for me to pronounce it right. Blood is nepotism in America. You know the system that you gotta know someone to get ahead, to get a good job, to get high place in the society and this is how it works in Russia.

So when I returned, they made me the manager the very first year that I started working for them, literally a few months after sweeping parking lot. And you know what, they were right. I was doing a good job. Okay. I could barely speak English. At that time. I had a few employees under me and like older American guys and I was doing scheduling and I was taking care of customer relations and sales and everything.

Small operation, but still, you know. And I went back to Russia and I was telling everyone, everyone was, I left Russia. I was nobody. No one besides my family knew me. But I returned to Russia a star for one simple reason. I had spent one year in the USA that was very unique experience and everyone wanted to speak with me to hear my story.

And when I was telling them the story and I told them, well, I made the manager the hotel. No one believed me, right? They said, uh, you lying, you making this up. You know, not, didn't say lying, but they politely like, oh, you probably like

[00:25:33] Jordan Harbinger: telling us a little more. Oh. Oh yeah. Congratulations. He probably doesn't really, you know, but he's proud of himself, let it go.

That kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:25:40] Konstantin Samoilov: Some, that type of thing. And then they couldn't believe that me coming from a different country without knowing anyone, without family, there, without connections, that I could lend a job, a managerial job. Okay. So, uh, that was very interesting. Russia is run on blood. It was like that in the USSR and for a brief period, it changed in the nineties for about 15, 17 years in the early two thousands.

But now it's back with a bank. The system, unfortunately, and that's one of the reasons why what's happening in Russia is happening. It's a close circle. It's Russia is taken by a certain king and only who belongs to the gang are allowed to run the country and so forth. In the United States compared to Russia, you, it's like, well, we're all humans.

Okay? There is blood in America, but very, very little. Okay. Compared to Russia.

[00:26:37] Jordan Harbinger: I guess the difference sounds to me like if you have blood in America, okay, your dad's a senator, you go to a private school, you end up at a decent university. Even if he has to do a donation or like offer free commencement speeches to get you in or something like that, and then you get a decent job, or maybe you even work for him in his office, so you have a little bit of a paved, plowed road.

But if you don't have any of that, you can still go to a decent public school, go to a decent university, pay your loans off, become a lawyer or whatever. Like you might have some student loans, but it's not impossible. It sounds like in Russia, either you are a golden child. Who gets the best education, best opportunities, the best jobs.

No matter what you do, you're basically screwed unless you're in some sort of criminal enterprise and you're, you know, completely outside of society,

[00:27:29] Konstantin Samoilov: more or less. Yes. With the exceptions, of course. Let me just give you an example. That case in Maine, back in 97, as a very good case to explain, I came to this new hotel and I had, had not any experience in teaching in, uh, you know, setting up hotels or anything like that.

So I was just learning myself on the go and I had very little experience at the other hotel. So I come in and there's a guy and he, you know, dressed up in a suit for me and he starts taking notes or what I say, and he turned out to be the son of the mayor's son. Yeah. Local mayor. Mm-Hmm. And the owners ended up firing him because he didn't do, he didn't know what he was doing.

Right. How it would work in Russia if we were in Russia. The mayor's son would be the general director of all hotels, probably even taking ownership of the business. If it was not agreed with the owners, then they would simply not have their license renewed. Mm-Hmm. Or a police would come and, uh, you know, check on their places way too often or something like that.

You know what I mean?

[00:28:39] Jordan Harbinger: Yeah.

[00:28:39] Konstantin Samoilov: So there's no choice. The owners would have, they would have to take the sun, even if it was not very professional. That's how it would work in Russia for the most part. It's still how it works in different ways, but the idea has been the same. Mm-Hmm. And that's

[00:28:57] Jordan Harbinger: awful. It's basically you just have this tax of having this annoying owner taking part of your business who allows you to operate and adds no value other than allowing you to operate

[00:29:07] Konstantin Samoilov: Jordan.

That was before in Russia. Now it's much worse. Now the KGB comes in and just steals your company. You know it, they take the ownership, they steal the ownership away from you. You know, they sue you and the court rules into their, you know, your company, right? Transfers to state, and then state leases it out to a person who's it's supposed to lease it to.

You know what I mean? I see. So now it's much worse.

[00:29:34] Jordan Harbinger: You said in one of your videos a good job in Russia is a job where you can steal a lot instead of just stealing a little, instead of just working, right? So it's like maybe you could be a doctor and you have like some sort of okay salary. But a good job would be a government job where you can extort business owners or something like that.

[00:29:50] Konstantin Samoilov: Doctors don't make a lot in Russia. $1,300 per month is considered very good salary and there's tons of proofs. Many doctors get together and make video recordings addressed of Vladimir Putin on Please help us. We're not getting paid and things like that. Ah. But what would be a good job and what is considered a good job is the head of the hospital.

Because he or she's in charge of all procurement. I see. The government money goes to the hospital. The head of the hospital chooses who to buy from. Of course. For a fee.

[00:30:24] Jordan Harbinger: Yeah. Right. I'm gonna buy from the person who kicks back 10% To me personally,

[00:30:28] Konstantin Samoilov: yes. And no matter that the equipment is 50% more expensive and less quality Right.

Than from the other guy. They gotta

[00:30:36] Jordan Harbinger: get that 10% from somewhere. Right. So, and I'm allowing them to get away with whatever. 'cause I'm crooked too. So here's your dirty syringe. I'm gonna be on my yacht. I mean, that

[00:30:45] Konstantin Samoilov: sucks. Or you will set up your own company at, say your cousin's company and then buy it from him.

Something like that. Right?

[00:30:53] Jordan Harbinger: Oh man. Some jobs in the United States have crooked elements, in my opinion. For example, I don't know if you know this, our Congress can essentially engage in insider trading where they can use information that they know from government meetings and then they can, their husband or cousin or brother, or I think even themselves, can trade stocks based on that.

That's awful. And they should eliminate that in my opinion. However, it's not an outright kleptocracy where they are doing what we just discussed. For example, with the hospital procurement. I mean that would be, that would be straight up illegal. And I, I think the insider trading element should be illegal as well.

'cause essentially they're stealing from all of us when we're investing, not knowing that inside information. But I don't wanna get too far down the rabbit hole. I'm just trying to be fair in that we have some of that. But it's completely different in scale too, from the sound of it.

[00:31:40] Konstantin Samoilov: Absolutely. You are right on.

We're all humans. We're all have temptations. Okay. But, uh, systems are completely different.

[00:31:48] Jordan Harbinger: People must certainly ask. Okay. If all the really good opportunities went to people who were well connected, how come you got straight A's and they didn't just give your scholarship to some punk whose dad was important

[00:31:59] Konstantin Samoilov: because it wasn't the Russians who were giving out scholarships.

Oh, it was the United

[00:32:04] Jordan Harbinger: States that got the, it was Americans. That was the, yes. I see. Yes. Alright, so you stay in the US for a bit. You've moved to the US at 20, moved back to Russia at age 29. Why go back to Russia? What was the impetus there?

[00:32:15] Konstantin Samoilov: I had a very good life in the USA. I continued my education in southern Maine.

I met a girl I fell in love with. We had a kid and after so many years having the same job, Maine isn't the most exciting place in the world. It's probably the best place in the world, but it was far from the most exciting and my wife was, um, I. Raised in California, in Southern California, in Anaheim, and she kept telling me stories about Southern California and she was becoming registered nurse.

We decided to change our lives to move someplace. We went and checked out California, Santa Barbara fta, drove all over California and Santa Barbara called RI. So we came to Maine, came back and I told my friends that I was thinking of moving to California. So they immediately made me a counter offer, said, don't stay in Maine.

We'll make, we'll buy another hotel. We'll make you junior partner, which was incredible. You know, I was 28 at the time, so either way it was fantastic. I had two fantastic choices, but there was something inside of me that didn't let me sleep well at nights. I felt like if I were to make one of the moves, either to stay in Maine or to go to California, then.

I would have to put my roots there because our kid was growing up, going to school, and I felt like there's something, something out there doesn't let me feel comfortable. And I missed my family so much. I missed Russia, I missed Russian language. I missed Russian culture. I was a hundred percent Russian, born and raised.

Right. I was thinking and thinking and thinking. And somebody just called me and offered a job from Russia. People I knew, I was like, someone from above gave me the answer. And uh, I said, well, what's the pay? Oh, don't worry about it. That's gonna be good. You're gonna like it. Where we gonna live? I have a family.

Listen, we'll set you up. Just come. And I took the plunge. I basically talked to my wife and, uh, we decided to move to Moscow for a couple years. Wow. And this is how I, I. Moved, but my decision was based on, I wanted to see the family. I wanted my child to get, you know, exposure to Russian culture. I wanted to speak Russian for a while.

I wanted my wife to know where I was coming from, that type of thing. I. This is why I moved.

[00:34:47] Jordan Harbinger: Did people think you were crazy leaving the United States for Russia? Like did Russians say, what the hell you lived in in America? You're gonna move to California and you're now, now you're back in Moscow and it's January.

What's wrong with you?

[00:34:57] Konstantin Samoilov: I must have been asked that question 10,000 times. 10,000 times. Everyone. Yeah. And then I would tell them, look, I could see their, in their eyes like, oh, okay. But then they didn't believe me. They're like, ah, it must be absolutely insane. Yeah, he either was, I don't know, kicked out or he's like crazy.

Yeah, no one, no one believed me.

[00:35:19] Jordan Harbinger: Even a full-time parking lot sweeper can afford to take advantage of the great deals on the fine products and services that support this show. We'll be right back. This episode is sponsored in part by a G one. It's important to me that the supplements I take are of the highest quality, and that's why for a decade I've been drinking a G one.

Unlike many supplement brands, a G One's formula has undergone 52 iterations, continually refining their sourcing and testing to ensure the finest ingredients. Quality for Ag One is not just a buzzword, it is a commitment backed by expert led scientific research, high quality ingredients, industry leading manufacturing, and rigorous testing at each step of the process.

AG one goes above and beyond industry standards. I know the founder, I think I've said that like a thousand times on the show, but whatever. He is very rigorous when it comes to this. He was very sort of like anal retentive, frankly, is the term I was looking for about what goes into the product and what goes into his body.

And so I know I can trust what's in every scoop of Ag one, because I'd be dead by now. No, it's also NSF certified for Sports, one of the most rigorous independent quality and safety certification programs in the supplement industry. And so, you know, you'd be surprised at what's in a lot of supplements and other brands.

They just don't bother to get tested because it's sawdust or chalk or something in there. And frankly, taking care of my health shouldn't be complicated. A G one simplifies this by making it one scoop a day. Prebiotics, probiotics, digestive enzymes for gut support, a lot of other good multivitamin e stuff in there as well.

[00:36:39] Jen Harbinger: So if you wanna replace your multivitamin and more, start with Ag one. Try Ag one and get a free one year supply vitamin D three, K two, and five free Ag one travel packs with your first subscription@drinkagone.com slash Jordan. That's drink ag one.com/jordan and check it out.

[00:36:57] Jordan Harbinger: This episode of the Jordan Harbinger Show is brought to you by booking.com.

Booking dot. Yeah. It's finally time for summer travel. We're looking forward to taking a couple months off to spend with the kids, and booking.com offers so many possibilities across the us. You have 18 summers with your kids. They're probably not gonna wanna hang out with you for many of those anyway.

So in a couple weeks, we're taking our two and four year olds on an adventure to San Diego, hitting up the zoo, channeling our inner childhood a little bit. I never got to do a lot of this stuff as a kid 'cause we had a cottage, which was the most boring place on earth. Uh, anyway, I don't know who's more excited me.

The kids booking dot com's. Wide breadth of places to stay across the US makes booking whoever you wanna be this summer. So easy. Whether you wanna party it up in Vegas or you want some island vibes in Hawaii, explore the plethora of options from boutique hotels to oceanfront resorts on booking.com.

What are you waiting for this summer? You can book whoever you want to be on booking.com. Booking dot Yeah. Book now with booking.com. If you're wondering how I managed to book all these great authors, thinkers, creators every single week, it's because of my network, the circle of people that I know, like, and trust.

I'm teaching you how to build the same thing for yourself for free over@sixminutenetworking.com. This has nothing to do with booking podcast guests. It's about improving your relationship building skills for work, business pleasure. I know working business are kind of the same thing. Whatever. Let it slide.

This course does that all in a super easy, non cringey, very down to earth way. No awkward strategies, no cheesy tactics, just practical exercises that'll make you a better connector, a better colleague, a better friend, and a better peer in a few minutes a day as all it takes. Many of the guests on the show subscribe and contribute to the course.

Come on and join us. You'll be in smart company where you belong. You can find the course@sixminutenetworking.com. Alright, now back to Constantine Solov. I would love to know what it was like. I. When Putin started making noises like he might invade Ukraine, was it, I mean, most people said, ah, this is bluster.

He's trying to flex. Don't worry about it. Were you in that camp or were you like, this is an imminent invasion like the United States predicted?

[00:38:55] Konstantin Samoilov: You are talking to one of the people who were saying Don't listen to it. You know, that's just flexing muscles and things like that. You know, I'll remind you, there were two attempts.

Well, one attempt and one realized attempt. The first one was in April of 2021 when Russia started moving large amounts of troops to the Ukrainian border, to the city of Soff and all around Soff. That's where I'm from. See, in Russia, I lived in two cities in Moscow. My job was, and my family was in Rosol, my second wife and my family, you know, their world from Rosol, from the same place.

So I saw the military. I saw the planes flying over our house, the big bombers. I saw everything with my own eyes, but I didn't believe, I had not one single doubt that Russia would never invade Ukraine. And it happened the first time. Russias just moved back to where they came from throughout the country.

And then the same thing happened only towards the end of 2021. And I kept saying, same thing. Hey, Russian troops can move whatever they want within Russia. As long as they don't step over the border, then they're fine. The whole idea of invading Ukraine, it sounded absolutely insane. I mean, Kim New Hampshire Invade Maine, or Maine invade New Hampshire.

You know, I lived right next to Ukraine. I was growing up there. I speak Russian with Ukrainian accent, Southern accent. I lived in Ukraine for one year. I. Okay. I have friends from in Ukraine. Yeah, I worked in Ukraine. I started businesses there. I know people, and it never felt like I was in a foreign country.

And it's just, people spoke with a little different accent, that's all. And thinking that Russians could, none. And Russia thought that, believed that we could invade Ukraine. Okay. And then I was absolutely caught off guarded by what happened on 24th of February. I was just, I'm still shocked, to be honest with you.

I still, I'm used to it now, but I'm still like, it's unbelievable.

[00:41:03] Jordan Harbinger: What did you do right away? I mean was it just, let's watch the news or did you think there was gonna be a draft? Because I know, actually, let me back up. What happened first? Was it American companies pulling out or was the draft first? I don't remember the timeline.

[00:41:17] Konstantin Samoilov: I never cared too much about the draft. It wasn't the draft. There are two systems in Russia. First is draft. Everyone who turns 18 must go and serve two years. It used to be two years, now it's one year I think. And that is mobilization. That's completely different. Mobilization is announced at time of wars, things like that.

So when Putin came out and said, and I remember I woke up and I came to the first floor of my house and I saw him speaking to Russians saying I announced the special military operation. And it looked at that time like he had no doubts that it would end soon. Within a few days, no one had any doubts.

Even I called you my Ukrainian friends and they were absolutely down 'cause they were being bombed. But they said, well, you know what, that's gonna get over soon because this not good. People will take the kyiv very soon. Okay. They're like approaching the closing on Kyiv. No one had any doubts. I was more concerned with what's happening with my country because the moment that I heard that Russia invaded Ukraine, started the war, I understood everything, what was going to happen.

Okay. It's clear Russia is no more, was no more, as new country was born and the Russia that I knew that I returned to did not exist anymore. Okay. I absolutely knew about society changing and the economies going down the drain and Soviet Union coming back because it was, it's obvious. American companies started pulling out.

There was a shock in a vacuum. No Russian officials understood that. No one, none of them knew. And no one was commenting. They didn't know what to say. It was only like official propaganda military on TV all the time, and Putin and couple more people. That's it. Like all local politicians, they had no clue.

That all were in shock. They were saying what the fudge And of course it wasn't fudge. Right. You know? Yes, yes, yes. That's the one you hear in all

[00:43:14] Jordan Harbinger: the

[00:43:14] Konstantin Samoilov: Russian

videos.

[00:43:15] Konstantin Samoilov: Yes. That's pretty much, you know, you you get it. Yeah. And then the second day I remember things started changing. Some people started bashing each other on Facebook because some would come out and say, what are you doing?

Are you insane? You are killing Ukrainians. And others was like, you gotta be with our president. The president knows what he's doing. There must be Nazis there. So I saw the crack in the society, right. And I saw people stopping talking to each other and I'm like, wow, this is, anyway, I was day number two, I started streaming.

And I've streamed every single day, ever since I started looking for ways how to help. I started thinking, what can I do? I started feeling incredible guilt because I'm taxpayer and voter and I saw that what was happening to Russia. I didn't do anything. So the first company to pull out was Ikea. And they didn't want anyone.

They said, we're closing all our stores tomorrow. And it was a huge shock to all politicians 'cause they were saying they will never do that. They will never leave Russia because all they care is a buck. You know, they care about profits. That's the people from the west. They're very pragmatic and so forth.

And then all of a sudden IKEA says, we'll close in the stores. Like everything must go sale today for one day. And all Russians of course flocked to Ikea and they started picking up, you know, things at like, uh, half price. And so IKEA closes, McDonald's closes, apple closes, and uh, bunch of other companies just pull out Microsoft stop selling licenses.

And I worked at the engineering company and we were about to buy AutoCAD, you know, that's engineering software. All of a sudden our system administrator comes out and says, I can't do that anymore. Everything has been blocked. And then Visa, MasterCard stopped working in Russia and it was, this was like instant, okay.

Summer was pretty bad because Russians were advancing further into Ukraine. Then the military aid started coming in from the west. Ukrainians started pushing back and basically, this is when we saw big changes in the military. 'cause Russians started running away. Running back. But mobilization was announced on September 21st because obviously they did not have too many Russians were killed.

And we still don't know how many officially because they haven't told us anything. But they announced mobilization 'cause they were running out of people. And this is when I left Russia.

[00:45:46] Jordan Harbinger: How did you get. Out of Russia. What was that decision process like? Actually, I'm, I'm curious, you know, were you thinking like, I can stay for a little while, I shouldn't stay for a little while.

I mean, what, what was the, how did you evaluate your, your options

[00:46:01] Konstantin Samoilov: when there was started? When Russia invaded Ukraine on the 24th, me and my wife, we sat down at the table and I made a view video. I uploaded on YouTube. I don't know Jordan. It felt, I felt so hurt for Ukraine and for my country, for my people.

It was like betrayal of everything that I believed in. I uploaded the video, actually, I cried on the video because that's how emotional I felt, and we started to discuss what to do next with my wife. And we both were absolutely sure that we can't do that. We can't take part of this madness. We gotta go, we gotta leave.

And we didn't know where or when, but we knew that that's it. We were done in Russia. Unfortunately we couldn't live right then because when you have your entire life in one country where you have everything, like we had a house in Soff, we had an apartment in Moscow cars. Kids were going to schools and it's difficult just to get up and go and we were preparing for so long, and the kick in the butt for me was the mobilization because I felt like I already had talked too much because I was the only Russian voice speaking English on the internet reporting from Russia.

There were quite a few YouTubers, but they just stopped doing it when the war started. This close community, I knew pretty much all of them. Personally, but they just told me, we're afraid because we're gonna get arrested. Well, I felt like I could not be afraid. I was afraid too, but I could not not do it. I had my son, Michael, who was five at the time, every time I would imagine him, and 20 or 25 coming to me and asking Dad, what were you doing back then?

You know, what was your role, how you were trying to fix things? And then, uh, what would I say? And then I'm actually very proud of what I'm doing. And when he's 20, I will tell him. Right? I will show him. So anyway, I kept on streaming every single day, but I felt like they could use Commodization as a tool, as an excuse to get rid of me.

Okay. And then I felt pretty insecure. And from 21st through 27th at every live stream, I would say goodbye to all the viewers. I had quite a large audience, a few thousand people watching me every day. I would say, look, if I don't talk to you again, if I don't show up here tomorrow, no. That you've been great.

You know, that type of thing. Wow. Clouds were getting thicker and my wife was so mad about me not leaving. I bet. And she was pushing me. And I remember we're sitting Saturday and all of a sudden and I'm just like, what do I do? I know I need to leave, but when do I leave? Okay. And then this email coming in, there's a lady from Germany, Daniella, from, we communicated before and said, Stan's been a while, but I had this weird feeling I had to send you a Bible verse.

Okay. And the verse just, you know, I was asking like to discuss in with Natasha when how, and the verse just gave me the answer. It was absolutely incredible. Okay. Literally, I read the answer and right then I said, okay, this is the sign that I gotta go. And. I immediately started looking for a ticket, bought a ticket to middle of nowhere to Tajikistan.

That's the only ticket was available, paid $5,200 for economic loss. Wow. And I remember I bought the ticket and then I realized that I only have 36 hours to, this is it. You know, I, in 36 hours, I wouldn't be in Russia ever again. Perhaps. What does that flight normally cost? That you paid $1,500? Was it normally like 200 bucks?

Usually 200 bucks, yeah. Wow. It's just, there were no tickets. There were 700,000 people leaving in three days. Okay. I remember the tickets to destinations like Tel Aviv in Israel, or Yvan. They were selling for million rubles, which is over 10,000. Oh my God. It's like 12, $13,000. Okay. I was lucky that I got the ticket to who jumped 'cause no one knows that such place exists.

Okay. You know how I found the ticket? I actually went to a website of the airport and I started looking at all flights there, international flights, and I would check every single flight specifically. And then I found one ticket and I was gone like that. So I had 36 hours to prepare and I was Jordan.

It's really hard for me to explain when you understand that you just have to get up and take a step into unknown, into a dark room when you don't know anything, you don't know anyone there. So I spent most of Saturday. Giving out power attorney to my wife.

[00:50:49] Jordan Harbinger: Yeah.

[00:50:50] Konstantin Samoilov: In case something happens to me. So she could sell things.

And that was the first time when I realized that I was so lucky because I give my wife to my wife everything I own. And I don't even think I have any suspicions. I'm just, I'm happy to do that.

[00:51:04] Jordan Harbinger: Yeah. You don't, you no trust

[00:51:05] Konstantin Samoilov: issues or anything. No worries. No, absolutely not. And you know, I think I was thinking, what if I didn't trust my wife?

Like what would I do? But, so yeah, I've been blessed in many ways. In 36 hours I was gone just like that. It was the hardest thing was to say goodbye to my son, to my daughters, to my wife. My wife took me to the airport. She was crying all the way. I got out of the car and I had to say goodbye to her. And I saw hundreds of men pulling in the cars, the wives driving and all in the same situation.

Wives crying. Some men were crying, some men were just, well, no one was smiling, that's for sure. And, uh, the airport was filled, backed with Russians. Wow. I actually made a video about that. You saw that, right?

[00:51:53] Jordan Harbinger: It's gotta be, you're not sure when you're gonna see your family again at that point,

[00:51:56] Konstantin Samoilov: right? You're just like, okay.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Stepping into unknown to get out of Russia was pretty, pretty big challenge because five people in front of me who were standing for passport control, they were turned away. They were not allowed to leave Russia. Really? Why? Mobilization was announced. Perhaps they had some debts outstanding.

Perhaps KGB was looking for him, or mobilization officer, I don't know. But, uh, not everyone was allowed to leave, but it definitely was the exodus. It was really hard to forget those hours.

[00:52:31] Jordan Harbinger: I bet. I'm curious what Russia was like right before you left. You know, you mentioned Ikea closed. I. I know McDonald's closed.

'cause there's a interesting video you did on your last meal at McDonald's where you go and order stuff and you show just the massive long lines. And then even after closing, there's still kids like, let me get that food. But what else? There's a, you did a video welling to this in the show notes where you went to this fancy, gigantic mall and it was just dead.

I mean, it looked like you broke in when they were closed, but all the lights are on. It was crazy how empty that place was.

[00:53:03] Konstantin Samoilov: That's how Russia looked. Everyone was stressed, everyone didn't know what was going on and what was going to happen. That was before the mobilization was announced. Everyone understood that something incredibly wrong was going on in Russia.

Okay? The country was started moving to a wrong direction and a very dangerous direction, and everyone was stressed. Everyone was concerned about themselves. It wasn't such a great fear back then for freedoms and lives. 'cause the terror started happening later. I would say closer to the mobilization. So people still could say people were not arrested for wearing, uh, Ukrainian colors, things like that.

Right now, if you, even like in the social networks, if you like Ukrainian flag, you get seven years in prison. You know?

[00:53:57] Jordan Harbinger: Is that true? That seems

[00:53:58] Konstantin Samoilov: insane. It is insane. It's true. It's true. Wow. If you read something Ukrainian in the subway, they would ou that people denounce you. They go and tell local cops or cops look at the video footage and then the rescue.

Things like that happen in Russia. It's really

[00:54:15] Jordan Harbinger: bad. I mean, it's like North Korea. Oh, he was reading an English newspaper. He must be a spy. Not

[00:54:20] Konstantin Samoilov: there yet. Not there yet, but it's getting there very, very fast. And the worst thing is that. They have created laws, they've laid out legal foundation for this. Now they're acting according to Russian laws, okay?

And the law says that yes, you can be detained for spreading the fakes. They call it the fakes of Russian army. Yes, you can be detained for defaming government officials and things like that. Now, if you wish Russian army defeat, if you wish Ukrainian army win, they can arrest you for treason. That's the article of, uh, criminal code that is used widely in Russian now.

[00:55:03] Jordan Harbinger: Oh my gosh. Have things rebounded at all? I know you're not in Russia, but I I'm not sure what your friends and family are seeing and saying. I mean, has the economy come back a little? 'cause we always hear like, oh, the sanctions aren't working. You know, they're not doing anything.

[00:55:15] Konstantin Samoilov: I talk about it almost daily.

Sanctions are working. Sanctions are working very well. There's an opinion that the sanctions are not working because a lot of Western media rely on, uh, information data that comes from Russian government and that data is, um, a little altered cooked and they say, well, look, Russia has grown 3.6% in 2023.

Well, I'm sorry, but how come Russian president changes the Minister of Defense in the middle of a war? And the new minister defense proclaims that his main goal is to cut expenses in the Russian military to run things leaner in a leaner way. Okay, so they say one thing they do, absolutely Another thing, how come prices have gone up so much in Russia for everything?

That's how inflation in a normal economy, when sanctions, if sanctions weren't working, prices wouldn't be growing up like crazy. Things like that. There are so many things indicate that sanctions are working okay, but Russian official propaganda keep on saying sanctions aren't working, Russia is doing great and so forth.

Well, I'll tell you what, Vladimir Putin was elected the president for the fifth time. Well can hardly call it the elections, but let's call it this way, sugarcoating. They were sugarcoating everything for six or so months to create illusion of stability for Russian people, for everyone. But now sugarcoating is off.

And right now Russia is in great turbulence because the war of the clans, political clans is happening where it's visible now, okay? Shui goes out, pat out, out and so forth, you know, so this sugar coating is off and all you have to do is you have to look at Russia and you will see that sanctions are working.

And they won't even be saying that sanctions aren't working 'cause this is it. They don't need to. Vladimir Putin is the president for six more years now. They don't care. So you watch, you'll be seeing a lots of uh, interesting things in Russia very soon.

[00:57:31] Jordan Harbinger: A lot of tanky online say, well, the unemployment rate is really low.

And that's part of the reason you have such high inflation, I would imagine. I know that. Didn't they also start hiring women in 14-year-old kids to work in factories in order to sort of make up for the labor shortage as well?

[00:57:46] Konstantin Samoilov: The unemployment is record low in Russia, and at all times it's 2.8% now. And as economists, I tell you, this is terrible.

Absolutely terrible. It means that economic growth is impossible. There aren't too many people to work, okay? And you're absolutely right. They are allowing 14-year-old children to work at the factories. Now, moreover, they are coming up by June 1st, I believe they will come up with a list of 48 professions to assign those kids to.

They are recruiting women to fight in the war and they are recruiting just about anyone to do hard manual labor, including women. So this is hardly situation, normal type of situation in Russia. This isn't everything normal, this isn't going according to the plan. This is sanctions working right there.

[00:58:40] Jordan Harbinger: I know that a lot of people you, you have this Tash Kent Breakfast Club, which is like expat Russians who are leaving or who have left, I should say, who's leaving Russia right now and in the past few years.

And will those people eventually just go back to Russia when this is all over? What do you think?

[00:58:57] Konstantin Samoilov: I would say that whoever understands what's going on, what's truly going on, tries to leave Russia. Not all can, because there are circumstances. Some people just can't afford it. Some people, I. Too afraid some people have old parents to care for and think I've, I've seen it all.

Okay. People who have hearts leave, people who can see few steps ahead, leave. And so far my estimations around 3 million Russians have left. What I was seeing in late September was Exodus. I have never seen anything like that. There were thousands and thousands of men and we all landed in Hu Joined, it's in the middle of nowhere in Tajikistan, among High Mountains.

And uh, there were like three or four locals and then a plane full of Russian men and thirties and forties. And we just got out of the airport and we started walking towards those big border, basically trying to get cabs and so forth. And, uh, the same situation all of us. Some have returned. Because life is so much deeper and more colorful than any of our understanding of life.

You know, there are different situations for everyone. Some parents got sick, somebody died in Russia. Some people just couldn't handle it. It's too difficult to be away from families from Russia. Imagine you living in Russia for like 45 years and you don't get out. You like Russia. You like your job, you like, you know, you have friends and all of a sudden there's, you have to live in 48 hours.

Some people found it way too difficult. Some people couldn't find jobs and incomes, but I estimate 10%, 10 to perhaps 15 by most went back to Russia. Most of us who have stayed, we don't even think of going back. There's no way. No way ever. I can't say never. Okay. But yeah, that was a long time. Then at this point, I.

Don't want to ever go back to Russia for one simple reason. Many times I'm asked this question, you know, online by foreigners and by Russians, well, what if the war ended tomorrow and things would go back to normal economy? Okay. You know, would you go back? My answer is no, because even if everything is back to normal, the war is over and all of that.

How can I live alongside people who supported the war, who went to kill Ukrainians? Okay, who were supporting Vladimir Putin, who were doing this propaganda things, and then majority of Russians are pro-war, 80% or so. I can't imagine going back and living among them, neighbors, colleagues, you know everyone, people you see on the streets, people you deal with at stores.

Teachers, Michael is going to school now, right? His teachers. I know that they supported the war and they would be teaching my son. Thank you. But no thank you.

[01:02:18] Jordan Harbinger: Even if you get paid in rubles, you can afford to take advantage of the fine products and services that support this show. We'll be right back.

This episode is sponsored in part by Rosetta Stone. As a Polly Glos, I feel a little bit self-important, calling myself that, but whatever. I love traveling and connecting with locals by speaking their language. Whether it's ordering in Mandarin at a restaurant or chatting in German, speak in another language is a valuable skill, and that's why I recommend Rosetta Stone.

It's a go-to language learning program trusted by millions over 30 years, offering 25 languages, including Spanish, Italian, and Japanese Rosetta Stone's. Immersion technique means no English translations. Just natural learning that progresses from words to full sentences, ensuring you think in your new language, which is really important.

Trust me. I wish I had it during my high school French classes where all they taught was pure rote memorization of irregular verbs, barf plus Rosetta Stone's true accent features like having a personal accent coach, providing real time feedback to perfect your pronunciation. It's also super convenient.

Download lessons. Learn anywhere even without wifi, which means you can do it on the plane. I also love that Rosetta Stone personalizes the lessons to your goals and what you wanna use the language for. And the best part is get a lifetime membership to all 25 languages at 50% off.

[01:03:28] Jen Harbinger: Don't put off learning that language.

There's no better time than right now to get started. For limited time, our listeners can get Rosetta Stone's lifetime membership For 50% off. Visit rosetta stone.com/jordan. That's 50% off. Unlimited access to 25 language courses for the rest of your life. Redeem for 50% off@rosettastone.com slash Jordan today.

[01:03:49] Jordan Harbinger: This episode is also sponsored by article. My in-laws are absolute lifesavers when it comes to helping out with the kids. So we thought it was high time to give them a surprise they truly deserved. They had this ancient black leather couch, leatherish couch that was like swallowing them whole super soft and had all these really gross wear patterns on it.

We knew it was time for an upgrade, so we took a leap and ordered them an upgrade from article. If you haven't shopped at article yet, you're in for quite a treat. It's all online, which I was a bit skeptical 'cause like how are you gonna buy furniture online? But it was surprisingly seamless. They offer a huge selection of sleek, modern furniture that is surprisingly affordable.

They cut out the middleman, which really lowers the prices. I had no idea what the markup was at furniture stores. It's absolutely insane. One thing I really love about article is their 30 day satisfaction guarantee. So buying furniture, look, it's a big decision. The peace of mind that comes from knowing you can exchange something if it doesn't fit right in your space.

That is invaluable. And plus their delivery services on point. The in-laws were pleasantly surprised and now they can babysit the kids even more.

[01:04:44] Jen Harbinger: Article is offering our listeners $50 off your first purchase of a hundred dollars or more to claim Visit article.com/jordan and the discount will be automatically applied at checkout.

That's article.com/jordan. For $50 off your first purchase of a hundred dollars or more,

[01:04:59] Jordan Harbinger: I've got homes.com is the sponsor for this episode. homes.com knows what when it comes to home shopping. It's never just about the house or the condo. It's about the homes. And what makes a home is more than just the house or property.

It's the location. It's the neighborhood. If you got kids, it's also schools nearby parks, transportation options. That's why homes.com goes above and beyond to bring home shoppers the in-depth information they need to find the right home. It's so hard not to say home every single time. And when I say in-depth information, I'm talking deep.

Each listing features comprehensive information about the neighborhood complete with a video guide. They also have details about local schools with test scores, state rankings, student teacher ratio. They even have an agent directory with the sales history of each agent. So when it comes to finding a home, not just a house, this is everything you need to know all in one place.

homes.com. We've done your homework. If you like this episode of the show, I invite you to do what other smart and considerate listeners do, which is take a moment and support our amazing sponsors. All the deals, discount codes, and ways to support the show are searchable and clickable over at Jordan harbinger.com/deals.

If you can't remember the name of a sponsor, you can't find the code, go ahead and email meJordan@jordanharbinger.com. I am more than happy to surface that code for you. Yes, it is that important that you support those who support the show. Now, for the rest of my conversation with Constantine Solov, it seems like Russia is trying to run both a marathon and a sprint at the same time, right?

You've got sanctions on, and I think you covered this in a video, airline parts and specialty items from abroad, but also the pilots are getting hired by China. So you have the brain drain, but you also have the inability to replace things and the inability to innovate domestically enough to make, you can't just start making Boeing parts for your fleet of airplanes.

It's not really gonna happen, and even if you could, we're the engineers to build it. Where are the pilots to fly those planes? That's just really not going to happen. Russia's really burning the candle at both ends. With this conflict plus the sanctions, plus the brain drain. You also have a quite an interesting perspective on the Russian military industrial complex, and I looked up a little bit about this 'cause I was curious, this is the economist in you probably popping out, but if you're pumping tons of money, billions of dollars into the military industrial complex, and you're paying defense contractors and the interest rate is 16% because you've got currency issues.

If I'm running a company there that makes furniture, I can't hire anyone. I can't get money to hire people and then say, I'm gonna pay you as much as you're gonna make at this defense contractor because the interest rate is 16% and the government is subsidizing those contractors. So anybody who does pretty much anything technical is gonna go work for a missile, an artillery company, or a tank manufacturer, not for literally any other sector of the economy.

As those military industrial complex salaries flood in, inflation's gonna go up and now your country's only producing. Artillery tanks, drones, I don't know, whatever. So in the missile, those missiles, they go blow up in Ukraine. They don't build a school in St. Petersburg and educate a bunch of kids. You're just building something that blows up and then you gotta make another one.

And that to have most of your economic activity in that sector is not good.

[01:08:06] Konstantin Samoilov: You are right on everything. That's what exactly what I say in my videos. This is my analysis. Do you know how much a rocket, a one missile that is flown and blown up in Ukraine costs?

[01:08:17] Jordan Harbinger: No idea.

[01:08:18] Konstantin Samoilov: Same amount as to build one school.

Imagine one school.

[01:08:22] Jordan Harbinger: So it is a shooting a school into Ukraine and having it blow up in an apartment building

[01:08:27] Konstantin Samoilov: every single missile costs as much $19 million as much as it to build a school. Geez. Yes. Wow. And you are right. They're producing things that are either blown up or blow up and kill people. And it does not do any good to the economy.

It sucks in the labor force. You are so right about it is called Non-military economic sector. It just vacuums people from there. Just to give you an example, a metal worker who knows how to work metal starts at 300,000 rubles at, uh, war Factory. That's $3,200 per month. An accountant at a plant starts at 52,000 rubles, which is roughly 600 bucks.

See the difference?

[01:09:18] Jordan Harbinger: Yeah.

[01:09:18] Konstantin Samoilov: Yeah. Everyone who can work, who is still inside Russia, uh, they take to work at the military, industrial complex enterprises. And you know, a lot of people have left 3 million people, mostly men, able men with hands and heads and education and experience have left. And that's a tremendous pressure to, uh, labor force.

I. To the economy. Economy in general is under perfect storm right now, and even if the war is over, the perfect storm is to stay. That's what a lot of Russians don't understand. Russia has been destroyed, period, and it's not gonna get better instantly after the war is over. The companies are not gonna come back.

The investors are not gonna come back. You know, Russia's not gonna get opened up from the inside and from the outside. So when, believe it or not, many Russians think that, oh, just wait until it's over. That's gonna be fine. Again, you have, right,

[01:10:15] Jordan Harbinger: I don't know, man. You're never gonna, well, I should say not you.

Russia's never gonna recover from the demographic crisis. I did an episode about this 8 59 with Bradley Sherman, and he talks about just the math. If enough men are gone and or have died, Russia's just never going to actually recover from this. It's not really possible.

[01:10:34] Konstantin Samoilov: I've thought about it a lot and I absolutely, you are right.

Absolutely agree. And funny how Russians react. They don't think about it. No. I have thought, I've talked to so many Russians inside Russia, and once I start asking them questions, what do you think of what's going on in Ukraine about the economy? What do you think have the prices? Do you think they're gonna go up?

They shut me off. Like, I don't want to talk about that. Why? It's too painful. I don't watch the news. What do you think of this, uh, guy getting fired or no? No, I don't know. I don't watch the news. Let me tell you. No, no, no, no. Please don't. Because I don't want to know. I'm gonna go crazy if I learn these things.

They have built informational bubbles for themselves, and they live inside those bubbles, and they don't want to know what's really going on in the country. But let me tell you, they are in for a rude awakening one day, and that day is they're around the corner.

[01:11:31] Jordan Harbinger: Tell me why we had to do this interview in a hurry.

You know? I was thinking like, okay, maybe we'll do something in September after my summer vacation that my wife is essentially making me take. And you told me that Tash Kent, despite you not being in Russia anymore, Russia is coming to you, so to speak. They're bringing the party to you.

[01:11:49] Konstantin Samoilov: Well, every time I talk about it I smile, but I, I guess it's a very like, uh, nervous reaction to this topic because if I didn't, if I wasn't smiling, I'd be crying.

Right, exactly.

[01:12:02] Jordan Harbinger: That's very Russian of you, by the way.

[01:12:03] Konstantin Samoilov: Yeah.

[01:12:05] Jordan Harbinger: I feel like there's a proverb in there somewhere.

[01:12:07] Konstantin Samoilov: Yeah. When I fled, when I run away, escaped, whatever, I felt fairly safe for some time. And then I started creating this community of Russians, Russian SVPs. And at first there were a few people, but then it's just, the numbers exploded.

'cause everyone wanted to be a part of a community, a support group. Everyone wanted to see people in the same situation. Right. And my YouTube channel started growing big time. And about nine months ago, I was talking to a fellow, well, in the know of how inside Russia works, right in the KGB and the politicians and all of that.

And he told me an interesting thing. He said, look, when the war started, the Russian state didn't care about what was being said about it on the outside. All they cared was on the inside. What Russians were saying, that rather keeps Russians silent. That's why they were putting focus of their attention.

The KGB, the Prosecutor General's office, and all the S Siki, they were focusing on the inside Russia on Russians. But now the focus has shifted. Now, rt, Russia today is very active all over the world in different languages, in Arabic, in English, in French, in Spanish, and they're trying to paint a certain picture of Russia.

Because now their ideologies, they trying to pretend that Russia is, uh, the pillar of light. You know, the beacon of hope for everyone who is for traditional values, okay? For Christianity and so forth. They trying to put a very positive facade on Russia and they do it through, um, you know, trying to reach to Western audience, to regular people.

And here you are telling the same audience who believes you different things. You telling the truth about Russia, how things are, and not only you telling, you, giving examples, you're showing videos, you know, you talk to people and so forth. And that just does not go well with Russia today for propaganda who's broadcasting in English.

So buddy, he said, don't kid yourself, you are on the radar now. Things really started happening a couple months ago when Alexia Navalny was murdered. And, you know, we went for breakfast. We, we get together every morning Russian s ips at the Ashcan Breakfast Club, and we were at the breakfast discuss in mourning Alexia Val's death, you know, to us he's hero.

And we made a decision. I said, let's go and honor Alex Naval by laying flowers to local monument, to political oppressions, political victims.

[01:15:04] Jordan Harbinger: Just briefly for people who don't know, Alex Navalny was a presidential candidate in Russia, ended up being exiled, went back to Russia, got arrested. After being poisoned by the KGB, he, he went to Germany for treatment, came back to Russia, got arrested and ended up dying in prison even though he was young-ish and healthy because the regime essentially killed him.

And so this made sort of international news. A lot of people followed this, but of course there are some people who are wondering who he is. So I just wanted to sort of, it was a very visible Russian who wanted change inside Russia and was an enemy of Putin and is now dead.

[01:15:36] Konstantin Samoilov: It was a huge shock. And we were just grieving, you know.

So we went to a local monument to political victims of political oppressions. That's a monument like that. And every Soviet city, because Soviet Union was all about political oppression. So we saw local co-ops. They didn't say anything. We laid flowers, uh, we took pictures there and all of a sudden we saw operatives, Russian operatives.

They were, they started following us. At first we didn't understand, but then it became obvious because we changed direction. They would change direct. They were following us. I came to one and I said, look, you're not part of a group. Why? He is like, well, if you don't mind, I'm just walking along with you.

And then they started taking pictures of us.

[01:16:21] Jordan Harbinger: Mm-Hmm.

[01:16:21] Konstantin Samoilov: And then they started taking pictures of our cab license plates with two cabs, you know, and, uh, it was very scary. It was probably the scariest moment of my life. Uh, knowing that I am on the radar is one thing, but when you see actually an agent in real life that's different ball game altogether, you know?

[01:16:41] Jordan Harbinger: How did you know they were KGB other than the, was it just that they weren't doing a clunky job following you around?

[01:16:47] Konstantin Samoilov: They didn't even hide themselves. They were trying to intimidate us. They were taking pictures. Yeah. They were there. They started following us when we went, not just in Tash all over the world.

They did that in Russia. They did that. At Navalny funeral, they, uh, filmed everyone. 30 plus thousand people showed up and they started arresting people a couple weeks after who showed up. So it wasn't just unique to Ashkin, it just happened us at the Tash Kian Breakfast Club to be there. Okay. And obviously it was them.

They did not look Asian because Uzbek looked different from that. They spoke with Russian accent, Bosco accent. That's noticeable. You know, I can tell someone from Moscow. That was them. They took pictures of us for goodness sake.

[01:17:32] Jordan Harbinger: Well, someone in your group tipped him off, right? They weren't just standing around by that statue that day.

[01:17:36] Konstantin Samoilov: They could have. They could have been. They could have been because it was a big deal all over. You know, someone could have tipped us off as well. That I don't know. But it doesn't matter.

[01:17:47] Jordan Harbinger: You call it KGB, but it's not called that anymore. Right? It's FSB. Yes.

[01:17:51] Konstantin Samoilov: It's the same thing.

[01:17:51] Jordan Harbinger: Yeah, it's the same thing. I just want pe I don't want people to think we don't know what we're talking about 'cause we're using the wrong,

[01:17:56] Konstantin Samoilov: the name changed, but uh, KGB sounds more dear to me.

That's right. It's easier to say. Yeah, I agree. But then after that surveillance, I noticed once more, one of those people not too far from my place, my home freaked out. Let me tell you. It's a feeling when there's just this primal fear, just you can't breathe 'cause you don't know what's gonna happen to you.

We have very odd people showing up at the Breakfast Club 'cause our group is open for everyone. You know, we're just bunch of Russians who left of women, men, you know, with families, with children coming in. It's open to everyone who wants to join. The only requirements is we don't make money of people inside.

We're just as free. Absolutely. And only those who support peace are allowed. If you support Word, don't even come close. And people usually, uh, who are members of Breakfast Club, they have relocated here. We started getting people, they say, we're just traveling. We're tourists. We're passing by. They show up and they start asking us questions.

Oh, where do you live? Where do your kids go to school? Why do you need to know you're just passing by? Well, you know, interesting. Some are more skilled, some are less skilled, you know? Yeah.

[01:19:13] Jordan Harbinger: This is very clunky. It's like they either don't care or they're very unskilled at what they're doing.

[01:19:18] Konstantin Samoilov: Some are very, very, like, yeah, they become your friends.

They come in in a few days. They show up every day, and then some are good. Then there's a guy, he comes to me and he says, look, I have this great business opportunity back in Russia. I know people at the Ministry of Defense and as big contracts, I know that you're a good guy. You know, I'm following you and I'm offering this great opportunity.

Let's go in business together. What do I have to do? Well, not much, you know, just accept the offer. Perhaps you'd need to go to Russia for sign the documents or something like that. It's not a big deal, you know, I'll sign them electronically. Thank you. Not thank you. You know, and then there's a, Gil comes in and she's takes advances in me.

It's like, I would like to, you know, go have like a coffee with you and be like, just me and you. Like, wait a second, I'm a married man. If you wanna have something to ask me about or about, you know, anything, just ask here. Well, I'd rather do it in private. And then she starts flirting with me. She starts sending me messages in Telegram.

Okay. I'm a married man, I have five kids. Okay? I showed it to my wife and say, Hey honey, look, this is what's going on. So I say no to the girl. Okay? And then there are telephone calls once in a while. Couple threads, couple people trying to get close. So we would like to meet with you, discuss something. And then, you know, Jordan, I can't say that they show their identification and say we're KGB, but you have this sometimes this gut feeling that things are not right.

Well, yeah, not well. Yeah. Okay. Last few months has been, I tell you, uh, how to say that. Not boring. Yeah.

[01:21:05] Jordan Harbinger: Why, why are they doing this? Do you think they're trying to trap you into going back to Russia, get coma on you so they can blackmail you? Is that the idea?

[01:21:13] Konstantin Samoilov: Well, the guy about business either getting compromat or trying to get me to Russia, the goal definitely would, was trying to get compliment to put me in a position of who she, or they could exploit it later.

But I think I'm not important enough for them to kill me because obviously it takes a. A lot of resources and a lot of decisions. Hard decisions. Okay. A lot of planning and so forth. But I am big enough, so they're trying to neutralize me one way or another. Okay. And the thing is, I'm getting bigger and I'm growing.

Look, you know, I'm at your channel. You know, I'm reaching out so many more people. I'm telling the truth about Russia. My channel is growing and I think that I'm becoming a bigger and bigger danger to them. And I'm sure that I'm absolutely positive. I am a regular guest on a YouTube channel called Silicon Curtain and another Fell American Admiral Ben Hodges.

[01:22:14] Jordan Harbinger: Oh, I know him. I think his

[01:22:14] Konstantin Samoilov: name. Yeah. So he's also a, a regular guest and we're two most popular speakers there. Basically, we are watched the most, and I was talking to the host of the Silicon Curtain one day. We were doing an interview. He did an interview with Ben Hodges. And a couple days later, biggest Russian propaganda outlet, Linta Ru.

Well, one of the biggest cited Ben Hodges Silicon Curtain interview. And my interview was right next to his

[01:22:46] Jordan Harbinger: right. So they're watching,

[01:22:47] Konstantin Samoilov: they saw me 100%. They cited him because he's a former gener. He is like a well known person. Okay. And then they misused his words. Saying that something that he didn't say, but that, that's not the point.

The point was that they know I'm on the radar for sure, and I'm growing a bigger and bigger target.

[01:23:07] Jordan Harbinger: What's your plan? I mean, you don't have to give the details 'cause it's a plan to get away from the, uh, FSB agents that are maybe trying to hurt you and your family. But like, are you trying to get back to the United States?

It's a lot harder for them to pull that stuff. It, it happens in the US but it's harder because the FBI actually cares. I'm not sure how it is in Uzbekistan and its former Soviet states.

[01:23:26] Konstantin Samoilov: Let's put it this way. If they wanted to get me in Uzbekistan, if I was important enough for 'em, they would definitely get me in a matter of days.

Okay. They just need an order in Moscow and they need resources allocated. That's it. I definitely am not feeling safe here whatsoever. And the, the more time goes, the less safer I feel. I'm afraid for myself or my family if I could make it to the USA and that's not easy. Because right now it's nearly impossible to get to the US A if you're Russian in a illegal way, illegally, oh yeah, no problem.

You fly to Mexico, you know, and go over the border. But I am not doing it illegally.

[01:24:10] Jordan Harbinger: I was gonna say, yeah, we'll pick you up in Nuevo Laredo or whatever,

[01:24:15] Konstantin Samoilov: right? So I tried a humanitarian expediting, and I was shut down by the US government. I don't know. I gave all the evidence, but I tell you what, I don't know what to do.

Maybe other countries, but you see, I consider USA my second home. Unfortunately, I cannot get to that home, even with my kids being born in the USA and US citizens, not naturalized or anything. You know, it's really difficult to get there. So you caught me in a very interesting situation. I, I don't know what to do.

[01:24:46] Jordan Harbinger: Well, if there's anything I can do to help, let me know. You don't have to let me know right now. Obviously, you know, maybe we keep a little bit of secrecy. We're not gonna broadcast it on the show, but you let me know. Oh,

[01:24:55] Konstantin Samoilov: thank you.

[01:24:55] Jordan Harbinger: And I will do what I can. I'm curious, before you go, what do you make of the terror attack in Moscow recently?

Can we talk about a little bit what that was? People might not even know about it.

[01:25:05] Konstantin Samoilov: Sure, sure. You mean Roku City Hall, right?

[01:25:08] Jordan Harbinger: The big arena, right. That got attacked by isis. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. That's what it was called.

[01:25:13] Konstantin Samoilov: I lived not too far from that place. I visited quite a few times. I visited couple concerts where the shooting actually took place.

My daughter, one of my daughters danced professionally. She was in a couple competitions there, so I know plays quite well. I'm amazed because at every single event, the amount of security was absolutely insane. There was a police station right inside this big building. Okay. And it's a large police station.

It was created just to keep that place secure. It had quite a few policemen, safe for guns, a cell for people to look up and all of that. And when the shooting started, it would take policemen minute and a half to run to the side of shooting. Or if they walked casually, it would take them three minutes.

Okay. Because the police station was right, right around the corner. There are a couple police officers were inside but they were running away with everyone else was K nine unit. Uh, moreover this K HQ of Rosas Guardia, which is Riot Police, like couple miles from that place. So if that riot police unit got up and walked, it would take them 25 minutes of casually walking.

It took them one hour. Oh wow. By buses. Okay. Very odd. I believe that it was isis. But something is very, very fishy. It almost seemed like the law enforcement knew and they didn't do anything. It wasn't them, but they knew and they didn't, let's put it this way, they ran the other way instead of protecting Russian people.

But that's how Putin's Russia work. But the goal of police not to protect people, the goal of police is to make sure that no one protest in on the streets. If you are to protest in Moscow, that shut you down in under a minute. But if someone is killing innocent people, it takes them one hour to make it to the scene.

[01:27:16] Jordan Harbinger: Yeah. That's what doesn't make sense to me, is I, I wonder. 'cause the Americans warned them and then they said, oh, this is just some provocation. You're trying to make us look bad. It happened anyway. So they, they at least had a clue and they should have been on higher alert even if they didn't believe in it.

So the FSB definitely shot the bed on that. But I wonder is, is it maybe that there's too many resources focused on protecting the regime? Not enough resources on intelligence and anti terroror because it's not like you have these police units, what is it called? Like olm or whatever it looks like on their jacket.

Right?

[01:27:48] Konstantin Samoilov: That's S guard. It's, uh, riot Police. That's what I call, yeah.

[01:27:51] Jordan Harbinger: Okay. So you got those guys. They do great when they try to kill random defectors or not those guys, but when they're killing defectors abroad, the, the FSB is on it. When they're killing protesters and arresting kids who are holding up a Ukrainian flag, they are on it, man.

They have, it's like clockwork. ISIS shows up at an arena and starts blasting, and like you said, they take an hour to show up and they're basically putting out fires and collapsed walls and ceilings and mopping up blood at that point. I mean, it's just like, where the hell were you guys? So is it they're just focused on protecting the regime or like you said, I mean, it's not a false flag.

Isis released footage of them doing it, but it just, it's bizarre how long it took. It seems like that would be bad. It would make Putin look bad. It makes 'em look weak. He can't protect his people, so I almost feel like it's just incompetence. But how did they get to that point?

[01:28:41] Konstantin Samoilov: Plain and simple. It's not their job to protect people.

Protecting people is putting themselves on the line, putting their life in danger. People aren't paying them, putting is paying them. The regime is paying them. So they're loyal to the regime and they take orders from the regime. Like you said, if there's a protest in Moscow, any other city, if you take a piece of paper completely wide and put it in front of you, they arrest you from somewhere around under a minute.

But then when the terrorists killing people, takes them an hour. 'cause it's their job to take care of the protestors. It's not their job to keep people safe, people on their own. That's what I think. That's what the problem is in Russia. I.

[01:29:28] Jordan Harbinger: Man, this is, we could go on for a while. You have so much interesting content on your channel, which we'll link to in the show notes.

[01:29:34] Konstantin Samoilov: Thank you.

[01:29:34] Jordan Harbinger: I hope you stay safe, man. Like I said, if there's anything I can do to help, let me know privately, and I want to thank you for coming on the show and telling your story because it's kind of not that safe for you. You're in this weird bind, right? Like you need to tell your story because that's the mission of the channel, but every time you do it, you're kind of digging the hole that you're in.

You're just taking another shovel full of dirt out while you're standing in it.

[01:29:57] Konstantin Samoilov: Jordan, I'm telling you, I'm not stopping. I keep on talking because I was silent for 15 years. I was looking at my country going down to hell, and I wasn't doing anything about it. So even if I put myself in danger, now I keep on doing it.

So there's no way they're gonna shut me up even if I put myself into more danger. I think that's more important right now to tell the truth of what's really happening in Russia. If not me, then who?

[01:30:28] Jordan Harbinger: Constantine. Thanks so much, man. Really appreciate this.

[01:30:31] Konstantin Samoilov: Thank you very much. It's an honor to be here. Thank you.

[01:30:35] Jordan Harbinger: You know, I've got some thoughts on this episode, but before I get into that, here's what you should check out next on the Jordan Harbinger show. A lot of people hear the name Pussy Ride, and they think, all right, what is this? You're just trying to get shock value. Can you tell us the beginning, a little bit of what Pussy Ride is?

When I was reading in the book and you said you just made it up for a lecture, I was like, there's gotta be more to it than that.

[01:30:54] Clip: No, seriously,

[01:30:55] Jordan Harbinger: not really.

[01:30:55] Clip: No. Seriously, they decided to punish us. They opened a criminal case and uh, in two weeks after the performance, we were arrested. We knew how to hide from the cops and for, for a week, dozens of cops were looking for us.

And when they caught us, finally they were so happy

[01:31:14] Jordan Harbinger: making 'em look like fools. And so

[01:31:16] Clip: profession,

[01:31:17] Jordan Harbinger: how does it feel to have these world leaders who are in these private chambers with their tea and their bodyguards, and you're sitting in a Russian prison and they're like these 22-year-old women, they're, they're screwing my world up, man.

Gotta do something about this. Look at how bad they are.

[01:31:32] Clip: Uh, I was really happy that, uh, Putin is in troubles because of us. 'cause they definitely didn't expect anything like that. My mother thinks that I need to, uh, immigrate around immediately. Yeah. You still live in Russia?

[01:31:45] Jordan Harbinger: I can't even believe. Yeah. You wrote, the Future has never seemed so full of enrich and wonderful possibilities as when I was in a labor camp and literally had nothing but dreams.

What gives you the strength to go forward when you're worried about, are they gonna try to blind me? Are they gonna try to beat me up? I mean, they, they were highly abusive to you while you were behind bars.

[01:32:04] Clip: I just prefer not to

[01:32:05] Jordan Harbinger: think about it. For more from Pussy Riot and world renowned artist, Nadia Tola Kova and her time in Russian prison, and of course their crusade against Vladimir Putin's regime.

Check out episode one 18 on the Jordan Harbinger show. One thing I found really funny, I don't think all of this made it the show, but there are a lot of knockoff places in Russia, so there's a McDonald's knockoff. There's an IKEA knockoff. The gross slash funny thing about the McDonald's knockoff is it's called Tasty Period.

Like Tasty period, but you know, tasty period. It's just got one of the most unfortunate names I think I've ever heard. I'm guessing it just doesn't translate well, but yikes, that's gotta only be a play on words in English, right? In Russian, it's probably more like tasty. Full stop. Uh, hope y'all enjoy that.

I think he's a great storyteller with an interesting path. All things Constantine will be in the show notes@jordanharbinger.com. Advertisers deals, discount codes, ways to support the show, all at Jordan harbinger.com/deals. Please consider supporting those who support the show. Don't forget about six minute Networking as well.

That's over@sixminutenetworking.com. I'm at Jordan Harbinger on Twitter and Instagram. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn. This show is created an association with Podcast one. My team is Jen Harbinger, Jace Sanderson, Robert Fogarty, Ian Baird and Gabriel Mizrahi. Remember, we rise by lifting others.

The fee for the show is you share it with friends. When you find something useful or interesting, the greatest compliment you can give us is to share the show with those you care about. So if you know somebody who's interested in a little bit of a look inside Russia and perhaps a different Russian perspective, definitely share this episode with 'em.

In the meantime, I hope you apply what you hear on the show so you can live what you learn, and we'll see you next time.