Unofficial translation

Yesterday Moscow sawan event that had been talked about for over half a year.  The general public was finally informedabout estimated losses international companies assume to have incurred due tothe counterfeit industry.  The lossesamount to $1 billion a year.  This isindeed a fresh piece of news, though not the most important one.  The important news is that internationalcompanies have finally decided to address counterfeit issue.  Early on they would run away from it as ifit were fire.  International giants wereoften asked questions like “Why don’t you track down counterfeit producingfactories? Why don’t you assist the Ministry of Internal Affairs? Why don’t youraise the issue in the press?”  In replythe international giants would argue that this is a very delicate subject.  However yesterday this subject was raisedwith as much determination as possible.

About 20 experts gottogether to discuss the issue, including politicians, lawyers, governmentofficials and PR specialists.  However,in informal conversations the journalists were told that "it is notadvisable to focus too much on counterfeit problems of individual brandholders.  It may effect their image andsales adversely, and we have to bear in mind that after the crisis have hadconsiderable problems apart from this.”

Though Russia is notanything like Byelorussia or China where on certain items counterfeit may reachor exceed 50 percent, consumer confidence in foreign-made goods has been on thedecline.  On the one hand, there is agrowing segment of Russian companies producing goods which are not always worsein quality and are more attractive in terms of pricing.  On the other hand, products of multinationalcompanies become a luxury many low-income consumers can not always afford.  And having been once exposed to counterfeitproducts people often decide not to purchase famous cigarette brands, genuine coffeeor high-quality shampoo.

Unless internationalcompanies make visible steps to combat counterfeit products and persuade the governmentto support them, the market may dominated by Russian companies for a long timeto come.  Needless to say that it ismore challenging to regain consumers’ confidence in once famous brands than toconvince consumers to purchase coffee with rubber aftertaste or premium brandcigarettes, made of Belomor qualitytobacco.  One must work.  Work against counterfeit.