Vadim Adamov

People come to libertarianism in different ways.

Many come from academic circles. They are attracted by the logic of this economic and legal doctrine. As a rule, they remain theorists.

Some come from systemic politics. At first, they followed the well-trodden paths, joining mainstream parties, then realized their hearts were not in the proposed methods and migrated toward a more liberty-loving current.

But the smartest, most consistent, and unfortunately, most rarely encountered public libertarians are those who are the most obvious beneficiaries of the wide penetration of libertarian ideology. Entrepreneurs.

Balashov joined our ranks precisely from these circles. After studying as an economist in the Soviet Union, in the late eighties he opened a consignment shop in a shopping center in a corner under the stairs, and a few years later he owned several shopping centers in the underground passages of Dnepropetrovsk. Then came the move to Kyiv, entry into public politics, and one term as a deputy in the Rada. Then social networks, radio shows, in general, a certain level of promotion.

For quite a long time, Gennady was engaged in trying to teach his listeners and readers the philosophy of entrepreneurship and was something like a Ukrainian Potapenko. But, unlike the latter, he clearly gravitated toward something more than a career as a guru, so he constantly tried to impose his agenda on society using political methods as well.

Since 2012, he has headed the 5.10 movement. These two numbers contain the core of his economic program: leave only two taxes in Ukraine: 5% on sales, 10% on wages. In 2014, on the wave of the Maidan, at the head of an initiative group, he simply burst into the office responsible for registering parties in Ukraine, and since then the movement has officially become a party—if only we could do that)))

After founding the party, Gennady seemingly began to actively study theory, and after some time discovered libertarianism; at least, this word began to sound in his speeches around 2015 or 2016, and more and more frequently as time went on. He used to call Bitcoin a financial pyramid and the sale of air, then, again, after being confronted with theory, he changed his opinion and became a distinguished Bitcoin evangelist, thereby demonstrating a sanity that other economists from the same Navalny team cannot boast of.

He is quite skeptical of anarcho-capitalists, but considering that he primarily interacted with internet trolls from that crowd, it is hardly surprising. However, at the moment, it is indeed better for him not to be distracted by all those celestial empyreans—since he has run for president, being a minarchist is optimal.