Today in the New York Times an article appeared titled “Lavish Malls Sprouting Up to Attract Iranian Elite” Iran may be facing a dangerous economic abyss, with an empty treasury, historically low oil prices and the continuing damage of Western economic sanctions, but one indicator is going through the roof: Developers have broken ground on a record 400 shopping malls across the country, 65 in Tehran alone. In part, the malls are a lagging indicator, a testament to a not-so-distant past when Iran was raking in record oil profits, earning more than $700 billion in the last decade. Awash in money, with a relatively strong currency, Iranians developed a taste for luxury, setting off a boom in construction projects to host new shopping experiences.
Not so long ago, shopping in revolutionary Iran was a dull experience, with hole-in-the-wall stores offering the same clothes, electronics and furniture. Shopping was considered a necessary evil meant to support a life of religious piety. Commercials, once banned on state television and billboards, are now allowed, but only for Iranian products. The new malls represent a departure from all this. Customers can stroll past Nike and Massimo Dutti stores, order freshly baked baguettes in the ground level supermarket or work out at the penthouse gym overlooking the city and its majestic Alborz mountain range. Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the state has dominated public spaces, using murals, the morals police and state media to emphasize what officials say are unchangeable revolutionary values. In private, though, Iranians have moved on, embracing satellite TV and the Internet, widening their world views and comparing their lives to those of people in Turkey, Malaysia, Europe and other popular destinations. From that perspective, the ornate shopping malls stand out as middle-class outposts in the state-controlled economy, indicators of Iranians’ increasing desire to join the modern world, experts say.
Suspicions that Sochi would become a ghost city have been dispelled writes the Washington Post in its article “Russian economic crisis helps save Putin’s post-Olympic dream at Sochi”. Holiday bookings in Sochi were sluggish over the past year, as Russia grappled with a political crisis and increasing international economic isolation
In the past several weeks, however, the resorts around Sochi have had a resurgence. Russians have tripped over themselves to reserve hotel rooms, book last-minute ski packages and fill Black Sea mountain getaways to near capacity.
With the memory of the Winter Olympics fresh in mind, vacationers poured into Krasnaya Polyana, which hosted the Games’ ski and snowboarding events and is now the No. 1 vacation destination in Russia. Russians who have the means traditionally put aside some money during the year for vacations, and many go abroad for the approximately two-week-long winter holiday that extends past Russian Orthodox Christmas on January 7. Some people are saying that it is cheaper to fly to Sochi, and you do not need to pay for a visa. Still, budgetary woes only explain part of the shift by Russian vacationers to the Sochi area. Skiing isn’t a poor man’s sport, and as many Russian tourists hitting the slopes at Krasnaya Polyana this month pointed out, they probably could have managed to pay for European trips if they had really wanted to. But in the current political climate, they just didn’t. In some way, a vacation in Sochi became the Russian answer to the economic sanctions.
The British newspaper the Telegraph published today an article headlined “Roman Abramovich's $70 million New York super-mansion” The Russian billionaire has reportedly secretly struck a series of deals to buy most of a city block, eventually allowing him to build one of New York's biggest mansions. It marks the end of a marathon property hunt. Last year his plans to buy a Renaissance-style home overlooking Central Park Zoo were thwarted when its wealthy widowed owner eventually turned down his $75 million bid, even though it was a record for a co-op in the city. Instead, since then he has been buying up narrow townhouses on the Upper East Side, an area where New York's wealthiest and most powerful families - think Kennedys and Rockefellers - have lived.
New York has become a go-to destination for wealthy Russians keen to find a safe place for their money. A recent survey said the city's real estate market was second only to London for attracting foreign investment.
