The construction industry in China isn't delivering a lot of value to users, just to the people benefiting from the bribes it generates. A bridge that doesn't last a year isn't much value to the community. "Developers" who start projects to capture buyers' payments then abandon tens of millions of housing units uncompleted represent a net negative to the cities whose residents they fleece.
Russia seems to have learned to perform similarly. Inside Russia collected a number of 2024 building failures – not war casualties, just failures – that flow from Russian corner-cutting. Last year, observers who interviewed local Russians developed a picture of a nation in which construction had halted outside Moscow. Now we see that in Moscow, buyers' move-in dates haven't been met and politically connected developers have been protected from legal consequences by statutes preventing the award of delay damages. Reuters covers the situation here.
Like Buffett's 2006 description of its experience doing business in Russia suggests, you can't invest where there is no rule of law. Without rule of law, you're just hoping your side ends up better connected than its adversaries.
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