‘Foreign workers are currently leaving the local markets. We are a law-abiding company, so they will have disappeared completely by April 1, 2007. The vacancies are being filled by Russian citizens quite reluctantly, however,’ says PR Director of Taganskiy Ryad (one of Yekaterinburg’s largest markets) Lyudmila Belousova.

‘We also expect the prices to go up beginning from April. Foreigners used to both deliver the goods to Russia and sell them here, but now the Russian intermediaries will take their advantage of the transactions. The range of products is also likely to grow less diverse with the disappearance of foreign workers,’ Ms Belousova said.