Muscovites in rush to shops amid sanctions

Residents stock up on imports from West as retailers abroad suspend operations

Yulia Shimelevich hurries to stock up on imported food for her cat and dog as it may soon disappear from Moscow shelves with the onslaught of Western sanctions on Russia over Ukraine.

“My life has already collapsed,” the 55-year old French tutor says.

“All the luxuries that we had grown accustomed to in recent years – imported products and clothes – are already in the past”.

Major retailers such as Zara, H&M, Ikea and many others suspended sales in Russia overnight, closing their doors in many shopping centres in Moscow.

Shimelevich said since Russian troops moved into Ukraine on February 24, most of her students had cancelled their classes, with many deciding to leave Russia in the face of repressive laws and looming financial difficulties.

Her son joined those departing Russia on Sunday. “The hardest part will not be tightening our belts … but separation from my son and a feeling of guilt in front of the whole world,” she said.

Many Muscovites still remember the hardships of the 1990s, when Russia experienced food queues and hyperinflation after the fall of the Soviet Union. For them, the past two decades under President Vladimir Putin have in comparison represented a period of abundance and prosperity.

But the crippling sanctions that have piled up since Russian troops entered Ukraine have led many to believe there are more difficult days ahead.

Anastasia Naumenko, a 19-year-old journalism student, said she had lost her job at a store of the fashion brand Oysho, after its owner, Spanish clothing giant Inditex, announced it was leaving the Russian market.

She said she was hoping to buy some make-up in the next few days, if she could afford it with the rouble plummeting under the strain of unprecedented sanctions. “I’ve heard that prices have already quadrupled,” she said, walking into a Moscow mall.

Naumenko also believed she might have to give up on her dream of becoming a journalist after Russia passed a law in the wake of the Ukraine conflict introducing up to 15 years in jail for “fake news” about Russia’s army.

“Who needs my profession with this censorship?” she asked.

“How do you live in a world that is limited to Russia?”

But some, like student Ksenia Filippova, 19, believed sanctions could also be an opportunity for the Russian market. “Russian brands can be a replacement. Maybe the sanctions will be good for the Russian market,” she said.