It is a balmy afternoon in Moscow and everywhere one goes, there is a whir in the air. “What do you expect when there’s months of snow up ahead? This is the time for cranes and construction, to raze and build,” our Russian facilitator says providing context.
One would have expected to find a city under siege, reeling from the repercussions of a long-drawn conflict with a neighbouring country. Instead, what one finds is a capital on the move, going about its business, with war clouds a distant cry.
The blowback, of course, has been massive, with West-led financial sanctions freezing Russia’s assets beyond borders and rupturing its links with the international monetary system. There have, however, been workarounds in this business-as-unusual environment: cash is king again, and the yuan is a godsend for the rouble. And if Western tourist arrivals are down to a trickle, West Asians and the Chinese are coming in droves – around one-third of the inbound traffic excluding former Soviet states originated from China before the onset of the pandemic.
