The Russian Army Major General who had been present the entire time couldn't help but admire Mavi immensely! What was originally an order worth just over 300 million US dollars was somehow, through Mavi's series of moves, negotiated into a 1.26 billion US dollar order! The key point was that it was paid in full all at once, so swiftly and neatly it almost made him slap the table in amazement...
Since Saudi Arabia bought so much military hardware from Russia in one go, the Russian Army naturally couldn't be stingy. They gave the Saudi Prince a few extra Scud missiles to take back and mess around with. If he felt their power was decent, he could always come back to Russia to buy more later. In any case, the Russian military would definitely allocate a large portion of this business to Mavi to handle. After all, they owed Mavi such a huge favor (the 900 million US dollar flamethrower tanks only cost 50 million US dollars to build, meaning they were sold for over 16 times the cost).
"Mr. Mavi, thank you for the Russian military's hospitality this time. If you ever have a chance to come to Saudi Arabia in the future, please remember to look me up!" The Saudi Prince, feeling very satisfied, said goodbye to Mavi at the airport. Although they spent a lot of money, they felt it was very much worth it. After all, there are constant wars and conflicts in the Middle East. In case they were ever invaded, the loss wouldn't be just 1 billion US dollars. It would be at least tens of billions!
"Okay, Your Highness, I will definitely shamelessly come and find you then," Mavi said with a smile.
As the saying goes, plans can't keep up with changes. Not a single one of the 2,300 short-range missiles he wholesaled from Ukraine had been sold. The 300mm self-propelled rocket launchers he just casually bought ended up selling over 3,000 rounds...
What the hell, he still needed to keep looking for buyers to sell off some of these Scud missiles in his inventory.
Originally, Mavi had even thought about bluffing the Saudi Prince into some kind of paid military training service. He would send his mercenary group to Saudi Arabia to drill the soldiers, teaching them how to fight Al-Qaeda terrorists. But later, he thought about it and decided against it! After all, the Saudi Arabian army's combat power was garbage-level; even the Americans got headaches looking at them. This wasn't a problem of tactical training at all, but rather that they were fundamentally afraid of death and didn't want to fight. No matter how thoroughly they were trained, when the time came and they were on the battlefield, they were guaranteed to be deserters...
Maybe in the end, Saudi Arabia might even blame his Mavi mercenary group for training them poorly! After all, back during the Gulf War, Saudi Arabia blamed France's AMX30B2 main battle tanks, saying they were of poor quality and couldn't stand up to Iraq's Type 69 tanks! Little did they know that if it were reversed, with Iraq using AMX30B2 tanks to fight Saudi Arabia, they would definitely utterly crush the Saudi army...
However, before Mavi could find a buyer to take over the ballistic missiles, the invitation to the Kremlin's Red Square Grand Military Parade was sent over first.
"Hello, Mr. Mavi, this is Yuna. Our Minister Grilov would like to invite you to attend this year's Red Square Grand Military Parade. Do you have time in two weeks?" Yuna, the Defense Minister's secretary, asked with a pleasant voice over the phone.
"I absolutely must have time for this!" Mavi immediately replied. The grand military parade was an important tradition of the Russian military. If he didn't go, it would be showing disrespect. Moreover, at that time, not only would the Defense Minister, Interior Minister, Federal Security Service Director, Air Force Commander, Army Commander, and other military big shots be attending, even the Russian President would definitely be present for the parade. If Mavi didn't go, then he shouldn't bother trying to make it in Russia anymore!
"Okay, Mr. Mavi! We will have someone deliver the invitation to your residence shortly," Yuna said respectfully to Mavi.
"Mhm, alright."
After finishing the call with the Defense Minister's secretary, Mavi inquired with Google about the R&D progress of Android smartphones. He wanted to see if he could start planning ahead and investing in building signal infrastructure.
Around this time in 2001, domestic 1G analog phones had just officially ceased service, representing the complete phasing out of the 1G network. As for the 2G network, due to incomplete base station construction, only developed cities had it, and even then, you couldn't get a signal everywhere. As for the 3G network, that would have to wait until 2008 before it was developed, still 7 years away.
So, as this life's "smartphone pioneer," Mavi definitely needed to establish good relationships with those telecom companies beforehand (find a way to invest and become a shareholder). This way, even with competition from Apple and Samsung, he wouldn't need to worry. Even if his smartphone market share decreased, he still had the telecom business, putting him forever in an unbeatable position.
"Chairman Mavi, I have some good news to tell you! Qualcomm's Snapdragon microprocessor is nearly 50% complete! And the development of the Android system has also reached 35% completion. We estimate that the prototype of an Android smartphone should be developed earliest by early next year, or latest by the end of next year..." Google CEO Sergey said over the phone, living up to the task.
Originally, when Chairman Mavi wanted to enter the mobile phone industry, Sergey and other company executives were a bit worried. After all, Google had never been involved in the mobile phone industry before and felt they couldn't compete with mobile phone giants like Nokia and Motorola. But as the smartphone design requested by Mavi was constantly refined, Google CEO Sergey discovered that this smartphone they were developing was clearly much more feature-rich than the Nokia "brick phones" and Motorola "flip phones" currently on the market! He believed that at that time, it would lead a wave in the mobile phone field...
"Okay, I understand. You're doing well," Mavi replied. The news that the smartphone could be successfully developed by the end of next year at the latest was quite good for Mavi. It was four to five years faster than in his previous life.
...
After finishing the call with the Google CEO, Mavi's life became lazy ("salted fish") again. When there was nothing to do, he played with his three pets at home. When there was something to do, he went to the US to meet up with the goddess Jennifer and... "pay public grain." Life was easy and carefree.
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In the blink of an eye, two weeks immediately passed. Soon it was the day of the Russian Red Square Grand Military Parade. This was the first time Mavi could be there in person, watching the parade alongside Russia's big figures. In his previous life, at most, he just watched broadcasts or looked at photos on TV or online. If someone were to ask Mavi what it felt like to watch the grand military parade live, Mavi would definitely say, "Actually, there wasn't much feeling, just accompanying a bunch of big shots, watching a military procession." If you were to talk about how exciting it was, it wasn't as exciting and shocking as the few exercises Mavi arranged when doing business...
Having said that, a military parade is a political task, so even if the scene is just ordinary, it's still necessary to put on a show.
"Mavi, let me introduce you. This is the Director of the Federal Security Service, General Lagochevsk."
"Mavi, this is the Commander of the Strategic Rocket Forces, General Rodioyev." Defense Minister Grilov enthusiastically introduced Mavi.
(End of this chapter)