Russia, pumped (oil boom)

[jpak]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070302.wxrussia0303/BNStory/Front/home

MOSCOW — This city of 12 million has all the hallmarks of an oil-fired boomtown – traffic snarled at all hours of the day along roadways not built for three million cars, ubiquitous construction cranes hovering overhead, rampant consumerism in the luxury shops of the elite and the more prosaic housewares and electronic stores of the growing middle class.

Gone from the underpasses and Red Square itself are the legions of pensioners who just five years ago were begging and selling off family treasures to put food on the table. Flush with petro-rubles, the government of President Vladimir Putin cannot only pay their state pensions but has increased them.

A decade ago, the monumental GUM department store – which faces Lenin's Tomb and Kremlin walls across the famous square – offered only drab and shabby local merchandise. Now, it has more in common with New York's Fifth Avenue, boasting designer boutiques for Louis Vuitton, Mexx, Burberry and Russia's own Bosco Sport.

And, as in every boomtown around the world, real estate is a hot topic. Many longtime Muscovites have relocated to the suburbs and rent out for small fortunes the downtown apartments that were given to them in the days of the Soviet Union, while the upwardly mobile professionals have seen the price gap between their current dwellings and their dream digs climb beyond reach.

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