Moscow starts to shut up shop

Four decades after her father wrote Back in the USSR, Stella McCartney is shutting up shop in Moscow. Designers such as Lanvin and Alexander McQueen have followed suit. Several stores that were once packed with fur-clad Russians fighting to pick up the latest western trends now stand empty.

Only six months ago, wealthy Muscovites were spending their petro-dollars at GUM, the luxury department store on Red Square, but as oil prices dropped so did their bank balances. Last weekend there were more shop assistants than customers in nearly all of the centre’s designer boutiques.
Guardian