Among the many much-praised virtues of the Russian people, patience is always mentioned.


I don't know if patience (unlike tolerance) is a virtue at all, but in the case of us Russians, it clearly takes ominous pathological forms.


In August, there was the famous MMM explosion. In most countries, financial scandal like that would lead to governments going down the drain, new laws being adopted and serious court cases against pyramid builders being filed. In Russia, the duped investors, instead of lynching Mr. Mavrodi, were chanting "Mavrodi for President!" Amazed, I asked some of them why they reacted so illogically. And they told me their reasoning: If Mavrodi is jailed and MMM is closed down, there is no hope of getting their money back, but if he remains afloat, they still can hope for some refunds. They're so darn patient.


There have been similar cases with "Kontsern Tibet," "Russki Dom Selenga," "Art-Finance" and a few other "reliable partners," some of which are still advertised on TV. Finally, there was the case of "Chara-Bank."


Now, Chara is a special case. They started out as a small family business, only serving a circle of friends, all belonging to the so-called "intelligentsia." Without any advertising, just by word of mouth, the bank became very popular among Moscow's intellectual and artistic semi-elite, who believed Chara to be a kind of exclusive, limited-membership, "high-brow" venture, and therefore somehow miraculously safe from the kind of catastrophe befalling populist "lower class" companies like MMM.


I first heard about Chara from my father about a year ago. He was led there by a fellow political analyst from the Gorbachev foundation. About the same time, my wife was urged to "save" with Chara by her friend, a famous film director. Well, this kind of clientele is very vulnerable in some respects: People with well-known names and faces and prestigious positions are used to thinking of themselves as "the elite," but they can't afford the respective lifestyle anymore, while the pig-faced, barely educated "New Russians" dominate the high-society scene. Chara came to the rescue, paying out monthly a cool 15 percent of the deposit in rubles, or 5 percent in dollars. How my dad, well-trained in economics, could trust such figures over the long term, I don't know. I think that for him, as well as for many other low-paid intellectuals, this was a gesture of desperation. "At least they don't waste our money on TV advertising, so they may last longer," he told me.


As older companies of this ilk collapse, new ones try exactly the same trick. All TV channels are now polluted by the advertising of one "Khopyor-Invest." This campaign is a direct rip-off of MMM's famous TV saga, and there is no doubt that the grand finale will be the same.


The commercial of another "investment firm" (I can't remember the name) says it all in a most straightforward manner: A guy is lying on a huge, wallet-shaped cushion, smiling wide and asking viewers: "Why work yourself, if your money can work for you?"


Well, if patience has always been listed among typical Russian virtues, laziness has been pointed out just as often as a typical Russian vice. So any offer of not working and getting good money sounds absolutely irresistible, no matter what the consequences may be.


The question of the government's involvement in monetary swindles is interesting. I think it would be just if the government, or even the president, being aware of the fact that their clever citizens cannot resist the lure of easy money, would ban the activities of money-eating companies. But they don't do it -- and for different reasons.


First, I'm sure some state structures are involved in the dodgy money, as well as their lobbyists and bribe-masters. Also, there is this political nuance: The vulnerability of the people and their full financial dependence on banks, funds and similar structures, which, in turn, largely depend on the state and centralized monetary/tax policies, make the regime much more powerful and authoritative than it may seem. Yes, hundreds of cheated investors may create a minor riot, but millions will patiently obey when faced with losing their savings.


This is something our liberal observers don't understand when they light-heartedly write that things like the MMM scandal teach the masses "lessons of capitalism." This ain't no capitalism; it's the old totalitarian game, mixing deceit, fear and dependency. The only difference is that money, not ideology, is the main tool of the game.