The Anti-Democracy Truck or How to Benefit from the Crisis

Crises lead to protests and protests can sometimes lead to riots or even small revolutions. Protests and riots have to be quelled by the authorities, be them democratic or communist. This is where shrewd entrepreneurs come into play.

A midsize factory in Vargashi, western Siberia, adapted to the difficult times and began “tuning” fire trucks by fitting them with water cannons and other riot control devices. The result? “The anti-democracy truck”, as the factory's employees call it.

According to an article in the New York Times, the “truck is sold under the brand names Avalanche-Hurricane and, for a smaller model, the Storm. Shrouded in steel armor, it comes standard with brick- and cobblestone-resistant window grilles, sprinklers attached to a tank of chemical irritant like pepper spray, speakers that can emit ear-splitting noise and, of course, a powerful, joystick-operated water cannon. The cannon can topple protesters from dozens of yards away.”

You would think that modifying a fire truck should be relatively cheap, but this Siberia factory knows the price for riot control and that's half a million dollars for one unit.

“We look at this as a product with a market,” Vladimir N. Kazakov, the factory director, told New York Times reporters in an interview.

Profit is not political or religious, so it's no surprise that Mr. Kazakov doesn't have a preference when it comes to the recipient of his “anti-democracy trucks”.

“We don’t mind who buys them. We would be happy to sell them to Israel, America or France,” he told the aforementioned source.

As a side note, the factory in Vargashi is the only one in Russia with a government certificate to make water cannons. To make things even stranger, the plant is situated in one of those industrial cities where crisis-induced riots are bound to happen.