Russians are slowly feeling the effects of sanctions

“The shopping complex used to have different brand names on all these walls. At the moment, half of the brands are not there. We still have OBI, a hardware store there. It is said that we are being deprived. “I have not yet seen the food stretched out in the panic,” the new reality of Russia after the imposition of Western sanctions, said Tatiana Klavina, who lives in St. Petersburg.

A woman earns a living by sewing clothes and dolls. The raw materials needed for her work have become twice as expensive. Tatiana compares this time to the nineties.

“You know, the stores produce their own original products, which are also the cheapest. Namely, the products of the store’s own brands. Here, there are very few such products left. The other products are in some reasonable range. The shelves are not completely empty,” said Klavina.

With the advent of sanctions, interest has also grown in more expensive end products, which may not be available any time soon. “Like audio equipment,” says music reviewer Dmitry Pevushin of Moscow.

“The MuzTorg store is usually not full of shoppers, there are a lot of people right now. There are a lot of them. pointed out Pevushin.

Dmitry does not agree with the comparison of modern Russia with the 1990s. It’s better now. But there are things that return to life.

“But what really comes back from the 90’s is a shelf with food supplies. Of course, I also create one, because I have my own preferences for certain things that will not be able to buy here in a while,” said a Moscow resident.

In addition, you can see large queues at ATMs on both the streets of St. Petersburg and Moscow. “We have a bot from Tinkoff’s Telegram that sends ‘notifications’ about where and when money appears. A ‘notification’ appears that, instead, an ATM is full of that and that kind of money. Literally after “The message disappears in 10 minutes. Namely, people run fast, empty it and run away. Mostly rubles remain, but the currency is removed completely,” said Klavina.

So far, the suspension or complete cessation of operations in the Russian market, except for the fast food restaurant chain McDonald’s, has been announced by IKEA, Visa, Mastercard, Apple, as well as the payment system Apple, Pay, Nike “,” Swarovski “and many other companies.

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