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Update from the President: Coronavirus

  • Sunday, March 22, 2020
  • Moscow

Dear BBC Members,

The buzz phrase of the moment is that "we are living in unprecedented times". The coronavirus outbreak is certainly affecting our lives, and the British Business Club is no exception. Our thoughts go out to all of those suffering and to all of your families and loved ones.

Whilst all events in Moscow over 50 people are prohibited and social-distancing recommended, we have had to postpone our events. We had already taken a fairly leisurely attitude to event organisation since the New Year break (mainly because of the frenetic pace of activity last year and my also my work commitments), but had otherwise been planning to launch a string of get togethers for the rest of the year. Sadly, these will now not go ahead for some time. It is a particular shame that we won't be able to host this week's planned event at Sous Sol, a new Belgian and Russian craft beer bar, opened in Patriarchy Prudi (Patriarch's Ponds) by Simon Connolly, one of our members. Please look them up on Facebook. I can thoroughly recommend it, if you are not self-isolating. This will be one of the places where we have our post-corona revival, whenever that is. We will also look to support those venues that have supported us so well over the years.

Much has been said and written about the negative consequences of the coronavirus. Much less has been done to try to mitigate the circumstances on a human level. At the British Business Club we are more of a community than an organisation, and nothing should stop us from making that community thrive online during times of trouble, even if Moscow were to go into formal lockdown. We are interested to hear from businesses and individuals who can help our members during this period. Maybe you have a business that is perfectly set up for online deliveries or courier services? Maybe you have something to offer online, that would be of interest to our wide membership base? Maybe you need help from other members, and think there is something we could do to facilitate? If so, please write to me at [email protected] and I will see what we can do. My philosophy is that we may as well use this down-time productively and should do our best to help those in trouble during times of need.

Finally, many of you will know, that I run a law firm, Conner & Company. At the end of last week, we prepared the following briefing/article, which contains some useful ideas about the mitigation of legal risk during the corona outbreak, both for individuals and businesses.  I hope you find this helpful.

Please stay safe, and keep in touch. We look forward to having an almighty gathering when corona is done.


Best wishes,

Luke Conner

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