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In Rostov-on-Don, a Russian port city of 1.1 million people just east of the Ukrainian border, signs of the fallout from the ruble’s collapse are everywhere.
There’s the 27-year-old entrepreneur whose storage facility is packed to the ceiling with imported Spanish tiles that his clients can’t afford anymore. There’s the accountant who had a front tooth pulled, only to realize she didn’t have enough money to pay for the imported implant needed to fill the gap. And there’s the interior designer who’s resigned herself to getting no year-end bonus after watching sales plunge at the European furniture store she works in.
While President Vladimir Putin boasts of how his government has been cautious about spending its foreign reserves to defend the ruble, the decision not to pursue a more active approach is adding to the inflation surge that’s throttling the Russian economy. In southern cities like Rostov-on-Don, where wages don’t match those in Moscow, the pain is more evident: electronics stores, apparel shops and restaurants are emptier, and billboards appealing to cash-strapped shoppers dot the downtown landscape.
Related: Putin Said to Stun Advisers by Backing Corruption Crackdown
“Nobody is buying,” Alyona Romanenko, the interior designer at House and Decor, said as she waited idly for customers to show up on a recent weekday. With the ruble tumbling 23 percent against the euro and 30 percent against the dollar this year, she said her boss has been raising prices constantly to keep pace. She estimates about half the clients she’d been advising on furniture purchases recently have postponed their orders. “My customers are in bad shape right now and so am I,” Romanenko said.
Для тех, кто не владеет английским, короткий перевод: Жопа, никто ничего не покупает. Мы все умрем....
отсюда.
There’s the 27-year-old entrepreneur whose storage facility is packed to the ceiling with imported Spanish tiles that his clients can’t afford anymore. There’s the accountant who had a front tooth pulled, only to realize she didn’t have enough money to pay for the imported implant needed to fill the gap. And there’s the interior designer who’s resigned herself to getting no year-end bonus after watching sales plunge at the European furniture store she works in.
While President Vladimir Putin boasts of how his government has been cautious about spending its foreign reserves to defend the ruble, the decision not to pursue a more active approach is adding to the inflation surge that’s throttling the Russian economy. In southern cities like Rostov-on-Don, where wages don’t match those in Moscow, the pain is more evident: electronics stores, apparel shops and restaurants are emptier, and billboards appealing to cash-strapped shoppers dot the downtown landscape.
Related: Putin Said to Stun Advisers by Backing Corruption Crackdown
“Nobody is buying,” Alyona Romanenko, the interior designer at House and Decor, said as she waited idly for customers to show up on a recent weekday. With the ruble tumbling 23 percent against the euro and 30 percent against the dollar this year, she said her boss has been raising prices constantly to keep pace. She estimates about half the clients she’d been advising on furniture purchases recently have postponed their orders. “My customers are in bad shape right now and so am I,” Romanenko said.
Для тех, кто не владеет английским, короткий перевод: Жопа, никто ничего не покупает. Мы все умрем....
отсюда.
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