What project are you working on right now?

We have an unfinished 5-hectare garden park behind the factory. We would like our patients to be able to go out for a walk and sit under the pine trees, not just attend the rehab.

A separate training area, where we simulate all the obstacles a person can face in the city: 1,000-year-old German cobblestone, regular paving stones, rails, a drain gutter across paving slabs, ordinary ramps, steep ramps, all kinds of steps. We will be training people to overcome obstacles. Greenhouses, too, where we could grow some vegetables.

You have both a business and The Ark public organization. How are their activities related?

We do not really separate the two organizations, because most people from the Ark also work at the Observer. As a rule, Observer employees are involved in all of the Ark's projects. For example, if I have to go and measure curbs, commission a building that has been renovated by the city, or monitor the commissioning of some new housing, I also send my guys out.

Do you feel more like a social entrepreneur or a public figure?

Probably more of a social entrepreneur after all. We also make money at the Ark, you know. That is, we are an organization with two fully wheelchair-accessible buses. We are the guys the Ministry of Social Policy calls up to say: "We're having a Disability Day, can you help us out?” We don't call them, they call us.

What do you think a social entrepreneur is?

It's quite simple. And I understood this even before the concept was introduced in Russia by "Our Future" Foundation. First, that is a person who addresses a social problem. Second, that is a person who must make some minimum profit, so as not to go broke.

The thing that "Our Future" Foundation is working to develop seems very important to me, because they teach the people to make money. You take the money, you have to pay it back. Yes, it is interest-free, but you still have to pay it back. And this is a very good story, because you're really under normal business conditions, perhaps a little more relaxed than for other people, but still, it's not a gift, it's borrowed money.

In your opinion, what could make a significant positive change in the social entrepreneurs' projects in Russia – maybe passing a law, building some infrastructure, establishing a development institution, or significantly increasing investment in such projects?

Honestly, I am against any development institutions. All of Moscow is nothing but development institutions, and we, Russia, cannot feed them.

The Observer Factory is worth $3 million or so. 300 billion dollars of Russia's foreign exchange reserves are frozen because of the sanctions. You could say we donated this money to god knows who. We could have built some 100,000 Observers with those 300 billion dollars. When Maxim Reshetnikov, Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, came to us, Kaliningrad Region was allocated 5 billion rubles for small and medium business. This money is lent to businesses at 1 % per annum for seven years. Roughly speaking, if we took those 300 billion of Russia's foreign currency reserves and gave them to the projects of social entrepreneurs at 1 % per annum, they would start working, producing something in-demand, making money, paying taxes, changing the country for better, and do more positive things.