How Did It Come To This?
There are various info-bytes and news references to the unfolding catastrophe in Ukraine throughout this edition of International Dealer News - not least the 'Letter from Ukraine' from 'DJ' Maughfling of Ukraine based Supersprox.
His company's primary manufacturing facility is based some 150 km west of Kyiv and while, at the time of writing, he and his team were still trying to keep the lights on and the machines turning, as he himself had said to me a few days after the invasion started - "there's no telling where, how or when this will end."
Down the years, we here at IDN (and our sister magazine AMD) have been lucky enough to meet many dozens, indeed hundreds of people from behind the former Iron Curtain and get to appreciate their friendship, creativity and craftsmanship.
Award-winning Kharkiv 'AMD' World Championship of Custom Bike Building
regulars Yaroslav and Alexandra Lutitsky (Iron Custom Motors).
Witnessing the emergence of the innate design and engineering genius that had been locked away for so long was a thing of joy. I will always regard providing a platform through which it could be seen on a world stage at the AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building as a journey, one that started in the 1990s, and as one of my career achievement highlights.
That journey felt that it had finally arrived at its destination when we saw Dima Golubchikov of Zillers Garage in Moscow crowned as the AMD World Champion Custom Bike Builder at INTERMOT in October 2018. The unique voting system meant that it was the votes of his fellow custom bike engineers that elected Dima as their World Champion, based purely on his design, engineering and craftsmanship achievement.
Given that there was no INTERMOT in 2020, it just so happens that Dima Golubchikov is still the AMD World Champion Custom Bike Builder, and with the events that we are starting to see unfold now, and a new Iron Curtain descending over Europe, it is highly likely that he will continue to remain so for some time to come.
That he is a maker of remarkable motorcycles, there is no doubt. But he is not alone. To name-check just two others - the work that Yuri Shif (of Belarus) has shown down the years has been nothing short of remarkable, and we always figured he was a likely candidate to emerge as Eastern Europe's first AMD World Champion.
But we are also thinking at this time about Yaroslav Lutitsky of Iron Custom Motors and his wife Alexandra. Wonderful people who have competed in the 'AMD' on multiple occasions - winning the Café Racer class in 2016 and always doing well with all their bikes. Yaroslav and Alexandra live in Kharkiv.
A big fat call-out too for the excellent Dmitry Khitrov - a well-travelled gentle giant of a man and one of the nicest (and most energetic) of people you could ever wish to meet. As the organiser of custom bike shows in Moscow, and the group trips that Russian custom bike builders have been making to the 'AMD' at INTERMOT, he has been the spiritual leader of the custom motorcycle industry in Russia - its inspiration, its pathway to opportunity and its Godfather (in a good way!). We all hope that he will be able to be so again one day.
I don't care what these people's politics are. The whole point about freedom and democracy, about so-called liberal values, is that people are entitled to believe whatever they like - until it starts to compromise other people's ability to enjoy the same privileges. I am sure that these are folk who will be as aghast at current developments as all the rest of us in the 'West' are.
In that regard, I'm going to leave the final words on this subject to someone who clearly is aghast at what is happening.
When Timur Sardarov - CEO and owner of MV Agusta in Italy - and his family's ComSar Invest (an investment fund subsidiary of the Sardarov family's Black Ocean Group) finally stepped in and ultimately stabilised MV Agusta in 2016/2017 after the trauma of the Harley-Davidson, V 2.0 Castiglioni and Mercedes years, any initial fears about 'Oligarch Creep' in the motorcycle industry were quickly dismissed. It soon became apparent that Timur was, and remains, a determined and above all passionate brand advocate who has been unstinting in his efforts to find and build a sustainable and future-proof pathway for that most storied of brands.
It hasn't hurt his mission that along the way he also just happens to have been able to oversee bringing some really excellent motorcycles to market too.
In remarks in a letter to employees that was subsequently authorised for public release, and additional widely reported remarks posted to his Instagram account, he has made his feelings very clear.
"I have never felt so bad in my life, feeling absolutely disgusted, ashamed and betrayed by this horrific, stupid and cruel act of war. I believe Russians have never been so betrayed by any regime in our long, difficult and proud history! This act does not represent us!"
No equivocation there and kudos to Timur for telling it how it is - despite what are likely to be the politically sensitive waters that he and his family may well find themselves having to navigate at this time.
Just as we all started to think that it might be safe to 'get back in the water' (following the disruption of the pandemic), now we are faced with what has the potential to develop into a complete meltdown of global trade.
In a message to those who thought it fashionable to protest against perceived evils of globalisation in the past 20 years, I have one simple message - be careful what you wish for.
Trade has always dictated the true course of freedom and opportunity, and as most of the motorcycle industry majors and hundreds, indeed thousands of other leading global brands head for the exit door where their Russian operations are concerned, let's hope that trade will be allowed to do so again - before the damage is irrevocable.
In the late 1980s, it was an emerging consumer demand for MTV, Levis and western 'shiny things' that eventually defeated the Soviet Union. Let's hope that conspicuous consumption and the taste for freedom and opportunity that the Russian people have had for the past 30 years can reassert itself and defeat Putin's imperialism before more radical measures are taken.
Slava Ukraini
