Hundreds of miles in war-torn UkrainePutin’s bombs destroyed apartment buildings and displaced more than a million refugees.
But the shiny shops around Red Square in the heart of Moscow were – at least for now – the norm, despite Western sanctions.
“Everything is a great bargain if you have the euro,” said Maria, a sales assistant at the Chanel boutique at the extensive GUM department store.
“We had good sales this week… when new stocks appear, they will be much more expensive.”
Asked if customers would still have the money to afford luxury goods, Maria smiled. “Our customers are rich. They will be able to pay.
Oksana, in her late 20s, was looking at a selection of Chanel bags (starting at £ 1,650 each).
“Everyone is so arrogant and rude when you go shopping in Italy,” she told me. “If we can’t travel to Europe, we can still get everything we want here.”
As Putin’s bombs destroyed apartment buildings in war-torn Ukraine, it seemed the usual business for the shiny shops around Red Square in the heart of Moscow. Pictured: A small number of visitors enter the GUM department store in Moscow
Across the city, in the cave branch of Ikea in Khimki, there was an even greater sense of urgency after the furniture company said it would cease operations in Russia.
Pictured: People queuing to withdraw US dollars at a Tinkoff ATM at a supermarket on Tverskaya Street in Moscow amid uncertainty about the Russian ruble
After the Swedish furniture giant announced on Thursday that it was joining the eviction of Western companies abandoning the Russian market, Muscovites rallied. My friend Maria, 51, took a day off yesterday to travel there. “It looks like Kabul Airport!” She texted me
An elderly lady carrying a bulging Gucci handbag said, “And after what they did to us, I don’t want to spend my money [in Europe] anyway.’
Russia’s elite seems to be gaining courage, as Western sanctions are being felt.
Many of the poorest Russians support Putin’s invasion, leaving educated middle classes and younger Russians by far the most concerned about the future.
At the Swatch watch store in the same department store, younger consumers feared an economic blow from Putin’s belligerent provocation.
“My mother told me that when she was little, this place was full of herring and cabbage,” said Tatiana, 19, a law student at Moscow State University.
“I guess we may have to go back to all this if the West wants to punish us like that …”
Tatiana annoys her friend, 20-year-old Galina, by posting anti-war slogans on her Instagram account.
A minority of Russians do oppose the war – although few will say so loudly and publicly. After days of minor demonstrations, about 6,000 protesters were arrested across the country this week
“Almost everyone who goes to [protest] He was arrested, charged and fined, “said Sasha, 20, a video editor at the Moscow Theater Festival.
“I don’t like war!” Admitted Galina, an economics student. “My father was angry. He said I should stop watching Western propaganda and stay out of Instagram. I just feel sorry for the young boys there – the war must stop.
On the other side of town, in Ikea’s Khimki cave branch, there was an even greater sense of urgency.
After the Swedish furniture giant announced on Thursday that it was joining the eviction of Western companies abandoning the Russian market, Muscovites rallied.
My friend Maria, 51, took a day off yesterday to travel there. “It looks like Kabul Airport!” She texted me.
“We’ve been planning to get a new kitchen for a while – but it looks like we need to do it right now.”
Maria told me that most of her fellow buyers accuse the West of unjustly punishing Russia. “Most people around me think this is the West’s revenge on us because they are afraid of Russia’s power,” she said.
But no matter what the wealthiest people in Moscow say, the lives of ordinary people here are getting harder. Visas and Mastercard issued in Russia are now useless after these companies stopped the service.
Hundreds of miles away in war-torn Ukraine, Putin’s bombs destroyed apartment buildings and displaced more than a million refugees. On the photo: Destroyed cars near residential buildings damaged by heavy shelling in the city of Irpen, Kiev region
Many of the poorest Russians support Putin’s invasion, leaving educated middle classes and younger Russians by far the most concerned about the future
ApplePay has also stopped working, which means that taxis can no longer be paid for at Yandex, the Russian equivalent of Uber.
Payments at Moscow’s recently modernized metro have failed, leaving passengers queuing at ticket offices to pay in cash, as in the old days.
And Ikea is far from alone: General Motors, Volvo, Volkswagen and other Western car companies are also unceremoniously withdrawing from production.
About 150 miles outside of Moscow, the principal of a private school that relies on royalties from the children of Western carmakers told me he was shocked.
“Our school was a beacon of modernity for our region,” she said, begging me not to publish her name. “We won awards. The fees of our foreign students subsidized the best possible education for Russian children. Now I don’t think we will survive.
A minority of Russians do oppose the war – although few will say so loudly and publicly. After days of minor demonstrations this week, about 6,000 protesters were arrested across the country.
“Almost everyone who goes to [protest] He was arrested, charged and fined, “said Sasha, 20, a video editor at a Moscow theater festival.
“The first time is 20,000 rubles (£ 120). The second is imprisonment for 15 days. Then much worse. People are scared.
Russia continues to advance in southern Ukraine, with Mariupol bombed and Odessa and Nikolaev threatened. Chernigov, in the north, and Kharkiv, in the east, continue to be heavily bombed. The capital Kyiv is also under threat, although Ukrainian counterattacks destroyed some Russian forces early Friday.
Russian armored car stands on the street with broken military vehicles after several attacks trying to capture the city of Bucha
A woman cries on the streets of Irpin, a satellite city of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, after being destroyed by a Russian shell
At 1 a.m. Friday, police arrived at the apartment of a prominent opposition activist and journalist, claiming he had been spotted at an “unauthorized protest.”
In spy thriller-like scenes, the man escapes through the roof, clutching his laptop and passport while his partner talks to police.
Officers handed her a summons demanding that the activist surrender to a police station within 24 hours. Now he is hiding.
“He is a fugitive and has no idea how to get out of the country now,” said his partner, who asked for their identities to be protected. He dropped his phone in case of surveillance. It’s horrible.
But to be clear, the majority of Russians still seem to support their president’s war.
An official poll earlier this week found that nearly 70 percent of Russians support what the Kremlin still calls a “limited military operation.”
The support can be blamed in part on the growing and nationalist media, as Putin has ruthlessly dealt with his critics on television and in the press.
A radio station and a news channel on the Internet were banned yesterday. Access to Russian-language news sites produced abroad was also hampered – while the BBC and Radio Liberty websites were restricted yesterday.
However, outspoken and sometimes fierce dissent is widespread on social media – especially on secure platforms such as the Telegram – which are now filled with graffiti images, including “No to War” and “Damn, Putin’s War”, scratched at bus stops and walls.
In Moscow’s Khamovniki district, I saw a group of municipal workers dressed in orange overalls rushing to paint over graffiti on a museum wall.
“I have no idea what was there.” I haven’t read it, “said a frightened worker, one of the millions of Central Asian workers who do much of Moscow’s low-paid municipal work.
Several middle-class Muscovites are trying to leave, not least because all young men between the ages of 18 and 27 are being forced in order to be drawn into the increasingly infernal conflict.
Unable to use his own bank cards, Vasily, 20, a director and theater producer, had to borrow from friends who banked in private Russian banks that are not yet under sanctions to buy a one-way ticket to Armenia. for £ 500.
Most neighboring countries have closed their airspace to Russian flights, leaving Turkey, Serbia and Armenia as the only possible destinations for those who want to escape.
But even those routes began to close yesterday as international aircraft leasing companies terminated their contracts with private Russian airlines.
A Nordwind flight from Moscow to Yerevan had to land in another Russian city as the pilot announced that the plane’s rental had been canceled.
At Moscow’s almost empty Vnukovo Airport yesterday, all Turkish Airlines’ daily flights to Istanbul were fully booked and long queues of passengers, most carrying large quantities of luggage, waited at check-in counters. Some had paid £ 1,500 for a one-way ticket.
For now, most Russians are behind their president’s dangerous campaign. But sanctions have a real tax here – and certainly worse.