Pyramid gambling addiction in Russia.

The collapse of the Finiko pyramid, which grew up and rose in Tatarstan, became a sensation for its investors. But this was not a surprise for me. As an expert, I have already talked about this a lot in the media and on the Internet. Yesterday, one of the founders of this pyramid told investors that he had lost control of the "company", they say, his partners have not been in touch with him for two weeks, and he simply does not know about the money of the adherents. The video caused a powerful reaction — 56 thousand people watched it live, later the figure increased to 220 thousand views. The founder of the pyramid, apparently, is bluffing that his partners are mainly to blame, who disappeared, and he, allegedly, was only a talking head in this pyramid.
Despite the collapse, the founder of the pyramid called for the launch of a new similar project.Economic history shows that the polycyclicity of the pyramid after the collapse is nonsense. Therefore, it is unlikely that it will be possible to launch a new dubious organization. The collapse of Finiko is a carte blanche for the security forces, which they have been waiting for for a long time. The fact is that closing the pyramid at the stage when it still pays something is fraught with political risks-deceived investors would shout how everything was so good until the security forces came. Only these fears can justify the ambiguous statements of the representatives of the Central Bank and the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Tatarstan on the situation with Finiko this Wednesday.
And in general, it is felt that the story of this pyramid, apparently, will become a test of the Russian political and economic power for its state gambling addiction, which has allowed such a scam. There are suspicions that a lot of those in power played this pyramid.
I learned that late on Friday, the Republican press and Mass Media agency announced a special press conference for Monday morning. Representatives of the main investigative department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Tatarstan, UBEP, the Antimonopoly Service and Roskomnadzor will speak at it. It is possible that at the press conference they will announce the initiation of new criminal cases on Finiko and will urge depositors to write statements.
This pyramid is special! There will be noise! It is international. According to the Prosecutor's office of Kazakhstan, which recently opened a case, 165 thousand people fr om all over the CIS became investors of Finiko. And this is the most diverse audience-from hard workers who took loans for the sake of their contribution, to very influential people. According to various sources in law enforcement agencies, during the work of Finiko, the" owners " of the system could withdraw up to 20 billion rubles net, but only the investigation will be able to estimate the real income.
It must be recognized that financial pyramids have traditionally "flourished" in many Russian regions. Some of them have reached the stage of destruction.
Among the storekeepers of financial pyramids, a large percentage have an addictive psyche. People's dependence is caused by low emotional and volitional development, because work has gone out of a person's life. The seed of any addiction is mania, attraction to some value that is given without the work of the will, without overcoming. Without such a value, the addictive personality begins to have bouts of depression and emptiness. A person loses the ability to feel values and joys as a result of overcoming.
Conversely, if a person feels joy fr om receiving (the same money) due to some work, he receives a state of normal joy, deserved, received as a result of work. But people turn into players who are looking for easy ways to earn money without stress and investments, and find a real addiction.
When the financial pyramid rises, the first giant profit comes to the" investor " - this is a strong impression of success, it overshadows the head. Subsequent losses are no longer taken seriously, only that successful win is scrolled in my head. The image of a powerful enrichment enters the conscious part of the psyche, which is not so easy to get out of your head. The person appears as if in captivity. But when the pyramid begins to collapse, problems arise.
This phenomenon, on the one hand, is associated with the peculiarities of the personality's psyche. But at the same time, there is one component common to all - a high level of credit dependence, which is formed by the destructive and criminal culture of the modern economy and society.
There are a lot of people with financial addictions, and their percentage is growing rapidly. People want magical transformations, enrichment. But this is only a small part of the terrible world of dependencies that we are plunging into. This is a global problem - the whole world is playing dice. The economy has turned into one that makes bets and waits for a miracle. In this scam, everything is based on trust, power and the globalization of American influence. The birthplace of financial pyramids is the United States, it is from there that they came to us, so it is necessary to solve the problem at the level of international politics. And our leaders, due to the aggravation of the Russian economic situation, lick their lips on these pyramids, in particular, on bitcoins.
The fate will inevitably affect all Russian financial pyramids. The rapid collapse of some of them has not yet occurred due to the fact that very large players may be involved in it.
There is a high probability that influential people with economic and political power participate in them. Perhaps high-ranking officials. Such a "compote" between thugs who support the pyramid and will eventually withdraw money, and suckers who will be left with nothing. This has been known since the time of the MMM and other major financial structures of the last century: all the officials left there, and the ordinary people suffered. Classic.
And a miracle will definitely not help the victims of these pyramids. Neither the state nor other financial pyramids will help to return the money. There are "saviors" who have filled up with promises to return some of the burned-out investments. They are just scavengers whose goals are far from altruistic.
What are the motives for this help? They are vultures who want to survive and take advantage of those who are easily manipulated. The motives of such companies are purely selfish and are not in saving the victims, but in the survival of the company itself. This is done in order to" finish off " the sufferers. But even if the victim of a financial pyramid scheme receives compensation, support from relatives, she will not feel stress, will continue to play with impunity and will lose money again. There must be stress - it is the main psychotherapeutic factor in order not to play anymore in the end.


A financial pyramid is an organization that steals one part of the people from another, but for a large commission , which remains in the pocket of the organizers of this pyramid . By the way, the state and its banks also work during the economic crisis, the people know this, but this happens less often and the period of growth of the state pyramid is much longer... The
pyramidality of banks is their mentality.



It is necessary to recognize that the subjects who are now called "players" (in fact, they are often gamblers) are people who have the freedom of choice and choose the game. For them, the secondary thing is that they can lose in this game. How can we hope that a person who lost in a casino will sue and figure out whose pocket the funds went into? The casino organized the conditions - there was a loss of some and a win of others. Therefore, a very large social group of players has formed in society and in the world in general. The world plays dice, places bets and plays. The phenomenon of gambling, betting has become part of the culture of postmodernism, and there is nothing you can do about it.

On the other hand, there are so-called classical, traditional attitudes associated with the fact that there are some victims of various financial structures, in particular financial pyramids. That was the case with MMM. At that time, a huge part of Russians hoped that MMM was an official bank that was shown on TV (and we have an installation that if it is shown on TV, it is true). People had no choice, it was the first financial pyramid. People believed it, because there was a powerful advertisement for MMM on federal channels. Only then they were stunned - when they found out that it turns out to be a pyramid, that they lost. Victims, discontent, etc. began.

And that: a considerable part of the victims of MMM continued to play as the pyramid opened. They believed in Mavrodi all the time, and even invested in his last run, played. I talked to some of them, and they say that they do not regret it - they bought excitement, and the main value for them is not money, but adrenaline and hope for victory. It is necessary to recognize that in our society there is a considerable part of citizens (both in Russia and in the world) who are ready to lose and not even sue financial structures. This is a fact!

The situation is the same in Finico - no one submits an application, and law enforcement officers cannot initiate a criminal case under the article "Fraud". And there are no installations from above, according to which a financial pyramid could be identified as criminally fraudulent. Now the investors of Finico are spectators, they have taken a wait-and-see attitude and are watching what will happen. Naturally, Kirill Doronin himself showed an effective model of beh * avior: if we write statements, the pyramid will collapse, plus the authorities will close us. And if we behave differently (invest and support the company), then we will go on a second visit - we will make a new project and we will cycle.




The polycyclicity of financial pyramids is nonsense. Usually, if doubts and panic begin in the pyramid, then it "goes away" and it is difficult to "give birth" to the second cycle. A significant part of Finico's investors knew what they were doing and understood in their hearts that someone would win, someone would lose.

There have always been and are such financial structures that organize financial conditions for Russians, thanks to which one part of Russians robs another part. And these structures charge a certain commission for the organization of such conditions. In any case, a small part of Finico's investors have become rich and chic, bought apartments and reached a certain level of happiness and joy. Most of them just lick their lips, believe and hope. Naturally, the beginners of the pyramid understand that the probability that nothing will work out is high, and they also took a wait-and-see position with the hope of a second cycle.

​In financial pyramids, contracts are very cleverly created. According to them, you can not take the contribution that is made, but you can only take the profit. There are a lot of points, everything is well done. Some of the points were taken from the contracts that Mavrodi drew up. He also created them in such a way that depositors themselves should be aware of the risks and bear responsibility for everything that happens themselves.​

What is the pyramid itself? (Brainchild?) are there financial pyramids or does the phenomenon of pyramidality exist in the economy in general and they are not simply called pyramids? If we analyze the state economy and look at economic crises, we can understand that the economy is developing due to them. The economy is developing because some economic entities always win, and some lose. Especially the people. It has always been historical.

If we study the reason why economic crises occur, it turns out that the phenomenon of pyramidism exists both in the state economy and in the government - only here the pyramid is not so steep and is destroyed less often. But when it does collapse, it is culturally called an economic crisis. And everyone accepts it. And when a financial pyramid collapses, it is the same economic crisis, only a small one. We must understand why the Central Bank is now taking a balanced, moderate position. Because they are ordained. That is, the Central Bank, the financial structures of Russia and the financial pyramids are placed in a row, they have common mechanisms, similarities. But the state structures and the Central Bank have different scales. Therefore, it is not necessary to say that our subjects of the state economy, our state corporations do not play, do not make bets. There are professionals in this system. From this point of view, it cannot be said that they are opposed to each other and qualitatively differ.

Now a unique moment is happening at Finico: it may happen that they will overcome this nonsense, when the polycyclicity of a financial pyramid is impossible. And suddenly these players, having agreed, will start investing in the second project. And the case will be closed. There will be no applications, the second round will begin, because the players will sit down like gamblers for a new round, they will start pumping adrenaline again, new newcomers will appear again, and those who are now shaking will feel that they are saved. The psychology of the latter is now built on protection: they do not want to accept the fact that they are suckers, that they were thrown. At the same time, they understand how the fate of the financial pyramid will develop if the authorities sharply designate "Finico" as criminals. Moreover, this is an international entity registered not in Russia.

* Investors who support the second approach will feel like not just rescuers (of a financial pyramid), but also self-rescuers. It's about whether newcomers will appear. And they may appear, because psychology will work: they ran over the" Finico", and they live! So, the pyramid is strong! When MMM went on the second run, there were such crowds there.

A question arises. When this "Finico" was developing, a lot of public and representative people came into play, and the authorities knew all this and watched it.​ Why did she watch and let the "Finico" develop? It is not necessary to say that they did not see that a giant, successful company is developing. They were watching.

The story of "Finico" is very different in terms of specifics, there is a novelty here. This financial pyramid works on the Internet, but MMM-no, there were no such tools. And now the authorities do not have a correct and correct understanding of what Internet business tools are. They deeply do not understand what the Internet is capable of with the help of modern information technologies. In essence, Finico was the very testing ground wh ere new technologies for financial pyramids are being worked out.

I had a suspicion that (and suddenly) this financial pyramid will develop in the same way as the state economy, which also develops through crises - it falls and rises, falls and rises. Why shouldn't this small firm fall and rise in the same way? Yes, it is smaller. But there is a giant army of players who are ready to lose. And they know that they once won. They have formed a player's psychology: all players know what winning is and at the same time they know what losing is. They know it deeply. Moreover, they know the first win, which is imprinted in the mind, they know the loss and they know the secondary win, which sometimes allows them to forget about the grief and the loss that was before. Players always cycle, suffer and rush from depression to joy. With such cycles, they pump adrenaline - and they are ready, they have made this choice.

The financial pyramid takes into account this psychology. "Finico" are people who have chosen to play not only for profit, but also for the sake of betting and courage. A considerable part of people advertise success, causes a feeling of envy, many people want to imitate them, invest. This is a classic.

The time has come when people need to understand what the world is turning into, when players become a giant part, a social layer. The global gambling addiction has grown. Previously, it was believed that games are carried out by a small part of the population, and this did not affect the economy in any way. And now, due to the fact that the quality of life has changed and thanks to information technologies, work has gone out of the lives of many, homo sapiens has also changed. Today, a person has a low level of emotional and volitional development and wants magic. By the time it hits, it'll be too late.

"Finico" is not some local, original story that affects only the Russian economy. It is a product of the global economic process in the field of gaming. This is the first time that the Russian government, economy and politics have encountered such a story, this is a precedent. And now everything will depend on the behavior of the depositors themselves, these players.

The players say - "why are you touching us? We want to play, and you forbid us, call the organizers of the game scammers." A new situation has arisen. The state explains to them that they were deceived, and they - " so what?". Now depositors have a powerful psychological defense "not to be a victim", by the method of exclusion they have no second choice but to save the company. If the second approach goes, it will only delay their suffering, the fiasco. When a person is on the verge of death (not only physically, but also economically), he finds different ways of protection to push this line away.

This is a separate world, living by some self-sufficient mechanisms. They do not even want to listen to the realities in the face of the prosecutor's office, society, in the face of experts. Like any manic gambler, he always lives in his own world and wanted to sneeze at reality until it blows off the back of his head. And it will hit not with a crisis, but with a catastrophe.

Finico's investors understood and realized what they were doing. They don't look much like MMM investors. Those who invested in MMM, in fact, did not understand and thought that it was a successful bank. Although many people realized that there was a redistribution of money from the pocket of one part of Russians to the pocket of another under the leadership of Mavrodi - and he "takes a commission"for this.​

In general, this is a disaster. Financial pyramids do not develop the economy, do not develop the world. The economy is not expanding, services are not growing. This is the same money, the amount of which does not increase - it is simply redistributed and that's it. And the real economy is when there is an increase in capital, there is growth. And there are no victims there. As there is no success. Just one took it from the other.

Real projects are when the capital multiplies and increases, then you can invest there. And when there are financial projects wh ere there is a redistribution of funds, it does not mean that the economy has risen. This means that someone has been taken away from someone, and someone has become impoverished, and nothing changes in the amount. Therefore, there are now many such projects that do not develop the world. This is an imaginary success.

The idea that they "hold on"​ if the cryptocurrency is called authoritative, then the cryptocurrency is the same pyramid. Just more international and stronger. One small Russian pyramid is based on the world one. Like Gogol's-a fraudster sits on a fraudster and drives a fraudster. ​



Associate Professor of the Institute of Psychology and Education of KFU, Candidate of Psychological Sciences Ramil Garifullin