Markos Shiapanis did not come rushing to Moscow in the early '90s, like so many foreign gold diggers who were eager to make a quick buck. He has spent 31 years in the city and is here to stay.

His M.S. & Co Holding Ltd. includes one of the largest travel agencies in Europe, M.I.B.S., and a publishing house. Two hundred and fifty to 300 employees work in offices in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Cyprus and Greece.

Shiapanis' motivation in his many projects is, in his own words, "not a desire for profit, but a wish to have work organized properly."

Shiapanis likes to say he grew up in a progressive working class family. He had always been interested in theater and had great confidence in the Soviet Union and its future. So after military service in Cyprus and a higher education in Greece, he combined his two interests and enrolled in GITIS, the State Institute for Theatrical Arts in Moscow, where he studied theater direction.

While a student in Moscow in 1972, he began work as a representative for a Cypriot travel agency - a business he would pursue later in life. As he matured, he began to feel that the world of theater was too removed from life. Shiapanis dropped out of the institute. "Enough of theater," he explained to his tutor, "Time to climb onto the stage of life." Perhaps the responsibilities of having a family influenced his break with the theater, for he had married a Cypriot whom he met in his student years.

His interests are varied, but he likes everything he does to have a wide influence. Thus, Shiapanis publishes The Moscow News in English and Greek, organizes manager-training courses, and advises the Olympic Committee for Tourism. He launched the famous Lotto Million nationwide lottery ("Anybody has the right to hope for unexpected money," he says) and was Inkombank's first consultant. Although the bank has had problems since the crisis began, its image is something Shiapanis still considers his personal success.

Tourism is not his highest priority, however. "I never occupy myself with something only for money," Shiapanis says. "As a creative personality, I only take to things that are truly interesting for myself, where I can apply my creative potential."

The businessman is always on the look out for ways to make small improvements in the world. Though Shiapanis keeps close contact with many high-ranking state officials, he never hesitates to express discontent with the government. "I was here to see the Communists, then Gorbachev, then Yeltsin," he says. "And I believe Russia has had, and still does have, the most unreliable presidential system there is."

Somehow, Russian politicians never take offence at the criticism, finding it hard to be displeased with someone so utterly concerned with the problems of a foreign country. "I am not on bad terms with the Moscow mayor," he says. "For I do not rob this country by taking things out of it; in fact, my business helps to enrich it."

Shiapanis has contributed the money he made on the Lotto Million to Russian athletics. And thanks to his contributions, Russia has been able to host some lavish competitions - from the Summer Olympics in 1980 to the Moscow Youth Olympics last year.

Shiapanis also completely renovated the Konstantinopolskoye Podvorie, an old Moscow building that used to house an Orthodox mission in pre-Revolutionary Russia. Shiapanis signed a long-term lease and turned the building into a beautiful mansion and his personal office.

Icons from a market in the Izmailovo suburb of Moscow hang behind Shiapanis' desk. The icons are not merely decorations - Shiapanis is a religious man. His taxes help support an Orthodox school, and Patriarch Alexei II personally blessed his new office. Shiapanis is not a member of any church, however, and goes to church only on holidays. "I trust in God," says. "But he only helps those people who have an inner power."