Russians have learned to bypass sanctions to buy luxury brands — World

Wealthy Russians regularly circumvent restrictions on trade in luxury brands, using a cottage industry of personal shoppers, middlemen and cross-border smugglers to keep up with the best of European fashion.

This is stated in the Financial Times article.

Instagram and Telegram are awash with resellers catering to both large retailers and private buyers in Russia, promising a way around sanctions on expensive handbags and high fashion.

European luxury brands have been hit by restrictions on sales to Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, when the EU restricted legal sales of goods worth less than €300.

Despite the fact that the average prices of high-end fashion clothes are well above this limit, Russians continue to demonstrate in…