Caviar: the king of Russian shopping

Moscow and St Petersburg are perfect for a weekend break. Rightly famed for their cultural treasures, for the more adventurous there is also the opportunity for a wide array of shopping.

Most retail business is transacted in roubles, as required by law, even if the prices are quoted in “uslovnye edinitsy” or “U.E.” - basically a euphemism for US dollar. Only street vendors will normally accept foreign cash and, then only USD or Euros.

Most good shops in Moscow and St Petersburg will accept credit and debit cards, and there are plenty of ATMs in Moscow, especially around the city centre where you spend most of your shopping hours. Most ATMs will offer you Russian roubles only, but there are still those where you can get US dollars.

If you find yourself stranded away from the city centre without cash, look for a local branch of Sberbank (Savings Bank), instantly recognisable by the brand colours of emerald green. Many metro stations will have ATMs. Most ATMs will give you an English menu, so do not feel intimidated. You can exchange any US dollars or Euros at multiple “exchange points” scattered throughout the city.

Make sure that your notes / bills are crisp and clean as many exchange points may refuse to accept them or try to give you a lower exchange rate. Exchanging sterling is more of a challenge, outside of the Banks.

SHOPPING IN MOSCOW

CAVIAR
Ossetra, sevryuga and beluga - all known as “black caviar” in Russia - are still relatively cheap compared to Western prices. Best place to start is a supermarket chain such as the Seventh Continent, which has an interactive map with store locations. This will not be the cheapest but should be reasonably fresh and a good quality product. Eliseevsky Supermarket, recently restored to its former, pre-1917 glory, at Tverskaya Street 14 is another, albeit pricier, option.

Buy at your own risk from tourist-geared stalls and “souvenir shops”. Look for glass jars with blue (supposedly, top of the line), red or yellow cover and check two things - the general look of the caviar inside (smooth, black/dark gray and moist) and, more importantly, date of manufacture. The latter will be stamped on the cover and often is hard to read and, for a novice, to understand. Ask someone for help - younger store assistants will almost certainly speak some English. For the bulk buyers, keep in mind that there are restrictions on the quantity that you may take out of the country - so check before leaving. Caviar emptor.

Price guide: £25-£60 per 112 gramm jar, depending on where you buy, type of fish etc. Anything cheaper will be either fake (”synthetic” caviar) or illegally harvested by poachers. Or simply past the sell-by date.

ART AND ANTIQUES
No longer the bargain they used to be as Russians now tend to buy Russian art in New York, London, Paris and Stockholm and bring it home. Yet if you are set on buying a Russian icon, turn of the century china or jewellery, there are good places to go. The Arbat Street has a wide array of shops (20-25 min walk from the Red Square). Ignore all the street vendors advertising rabbit fur hats, nested dolls (matryoshkas), military and communist paraphernalia and check out the antique stores that line the street on both sides.

Start with the shop attached to the famous Prague restaurant. Keep in mind that there are plenty of fakes about, so think twice before you drop any real money on a pair of “19th century diamond earrings” or an “18th century icon”. You can also try some of the higher-end salons such as Yekaterina (Leningradsky Prospect, 24). Another good place is Gallery on the Smolenskaya Naberezhnaya, five minutes walk from the British Embassy for a good selection of late 19th and 20th century Russian and Soviet art - though they don’t take credit cards.

Finally, you can try street vendors on the Arbat or the outdoor arts and crafts market near the House of Artists by the Krimsky Bridge. You can also try the market at Izmailovo to the north of the city, but it is mainly a larger (and more aggressive) version of the Arbat stalls. Bear in mind that taking art and antiques out of Russia is fairly heavily controlled. The rules change frequently to the point that even the border guards can be inconsistent. However to export anything pre-1960 will require a certificate from the Ministry of Culture. For ease, ask the seller to obtain the documentation for you.

Price guide: Antiques - icons (17th-20th century religious paintings) vary wildly, from £120-£180 to over £600, especially larger/older pieces or those that come in silver/gilded frames. Fakes will cost slightly less, but not much - to make them look like “real bargains”. Turn of the century porcelain coffee service from Gardner factory used to cost £450-£600, these days runs over a £700. Decent jewellery starts from a few hundred, most antique pieces will be around £700 plus. Art: you can get good early-mid 20th century graphics (watercolours etc.) from £300-£600.

FURS
Moscow is a haven for a wide selection of furs. Mid-summer is the best time to bargain-hunt as the prices are at their seasonal low, and shop owners are clearing their inventories to make room for the fall models. GUM (the large department store in Red Square) and Petrovsky Passage (five minutes away from the Bolshoi Theatre) are good places to start with a number of small fur boutiques. Prices may be high by local standards, but still attractive to Western buyers. You may try to negotiate a discount, although this may not work in larger stores.



Other fur shops worth exploring are Three Lions (Red Square 3, Novy Arbat 15), Knyazhna (Manezhnaya 1) and Landi (Smolenskaya Square 3). Finally, try also one of the large indoor markets stuffed with individually-owned and managed shops, such as the one near the Kon’kovo metro station. Bring a Russian friend with you to help negotiate; this can bring the quoted price down by as much as 20 per cent. But do your homework first: most places will not have returns, exchanges, refunds, warranties, or store credits.

Price guide: A rabbit hat costs £25, mink hat anywhere from £80-£160, fur coat (short, knee-high) anywhere from £1,500-£4,000, long (ankle-high) starts at £2,000 and rises £6,000.

AMBER and other high-end souvenirs
Almost every tourist shop will stock amber - however, beware of imitations. Amber is relatively soft so will scratch easily - it also retains a static charge which most fake amber cannot. Try the small arts and crafts shop in the History Museum (Red Square) which also stocks nested matryoshka dolls, silver and malachite designs and a good selection of hand-painted papier-mâch? boxes. All three main design schools are well-represented and each box comes with certificate of authenticity and artist’s signature. Some have exquisite designs and are very collectable. Some are not cheap: it is not unusual for a large box to cost £400-plus. You can also find imitation Faberge eggs, contemporary icons and the traditional blue-and-white Gzhel pottery. For a wider range of Gzhel pottery try their exclusive store at Navaginskaya 12.

Price guide: Amber is not that expensive, one can get a nice pendant for £40 or a three-piece bracelet for £85.

ALCOHOL
Stolychnaya vodka is available city wide but for something slightly different try the Liquor section of most Seventh Continent stores or the Eliseevsky supermarket (for address, see Caviar section). There are shelves and shelves of vodkas from the very basic five bucks a pop to the most elaborate bottle designs and wide range of flavours. The only local wine you can buy comes either from Georgia or Moldavia and which is semi-sweet / sweet and rather an acquired taste. The more popular brands are Kindzmarauli or Khvanchkara. They used to run at around £4 a bottle, but - possibly as part of the brand refinement - have gone up as high as £12-15. Local cognac (Armenian) is really a brandy, but if you feel adventurous, try the Ararat.

TOYS
One stop shopping for kids stuff can be had at the gigantic Detskiy Mir (Kids’ World) at Lubyanka Square, steps away from the former KGB headquarters. There you’ll be able to find all manner of toys with a Russian flavour for the little ones.

BOOKS
This is one of the last true bargains left in Russia.- especially art books which will not require fluent Russian to enjoy. The following stores are all worth a browse: Dom Knigi (Novy Arbat 8), Biblio-Globus (Myasnitskaya 6/3), Molodaya Gvardiya (Bolshaya Polyanka 28) and Moskva (Tverskaya 8).

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ST PETERSBURG
The city tends to have the same goods as Moscow but generally not as wide a selection. The second capital also lags behind in terms of shopping conveniences such as ATMs. Still, there is still good shopping to be had with the same general observations as in Moscow.

Department Stores
Gostinny Dvor (Nevskiy Prospekt 35) is well worth a tour. The large arcade is filled with shops selling anything from designer furs to lingerie and CDs. Passazh (Nevskiy Prospek 48) offers much the same range, along with imitation antiques. There is also a supermarket in the basement.

Art and Antiques
Peterburgskiy Salon (Nevskiy Prospekt 54) is great for window-shopping and browsing: be prepared to spend serious money. Rapsodiya (Bolshaya Konyushennaya 13) offers relatively expensive ceramics, silver and furniture. Apraksin dvor (Sadovaya) is not the most attractive arcade, but you may find some very nice mid-century porcelain tea and coffee services. There is also an outlet that sells rejects of the Lomonosov porcelains.

Designer Clothes
There are several trendy boutiques in the city worth checking out. Tatiyana Parfyonova (Nevskiy Prospekt 5) for ladies’ fashion by Russian designers is well worth a visit.

Books
Glossy books about the Imperial palaces, the Hermitage and other museums can be bought from street vendors on Nevsky Prospekt and near the Winter Palace. There are also several bookstores on Nevsky for a more relaxed browse.