The grey Zara market: how ‘parallel imports’ give comfort to Russian consumers

People walk past a closed Zara store in St. Petersburg. Zara exited Russia in March, but its clothes are being imported indirectly and sold in stores. Photograph: Dmitri Lovetsky/AP

Aleksandr Gorbunov, a property investor from the Siberian city Krasnoyarsk, had a simple solution when Zara, the Spanish clothing giant, closed its stores in Russia over the invasion of Ukraine: import it himself.

“The idea to start selling Zara came from my wife, who said she really wanted the clothes to return,” said Gorbunov, who said he was opening a store called Panika (panic) on Friday that deals exclusively in Zara and Zara Home products.