'The total area of malls and trade centers in Yekaterinburg increased by over 500,000 square meters last year when some new shops were introduced and some old buildings were renovated,’ Chair of Yekaterinburg Commodities Market Committee Elena Chernyshova announced at a press conference devoted to the opening of Eldorado supermarket.

'In my opinion, the number of malls in the city is already beyond all reasonable limits, even though some investors don’t think so and keep putting up more of them. We’ve got 650 square meters of trade areas per 1,000 city dwellers at the moment, whereas the figure only comes to 630 square meters in Moscow,’ Ms Chernyshova said.