For decades, Antonis Disios' workshop was abuzz with the sound of sewing machines stitching fur coats for his wealthy Russian buyers. In March, European Union sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine war shut the business overnight.
Disios, like hundreds of other fur businesses in the lakeside city of Kastoria, was banned from exporting to Russia, the main market for Greece's fur industry. With no domestic market, he sent his 23 workers home and his stockrooms filled up with hundreds of unsold garments.
