At first glance, everything seems the same on Red Square.

Crowds of tourists stroll on this hot August day over the cobblestones between the Kremlin wall and the luxury department store Gum, take pictures of each other in front of the colorful onion roofs of St. Basil's Cathedral, eat ice cream and are in a good mood.

Catherine Wagner

Business correspondent for Russia and the CIS based in Moscow.

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Even the Gum itself, a richly decorated magnificent building with a filigree glass roof from 1893, looks unchanged: Western luxury brands advertise haute couture in the shop windows, in front of them there are lush, well-tended flower beds.

But if you take a closer look, you will notice the consequences of his war against Ukraine even here, around the most important sights of the capital, which are the pride of the whole country: Because there are hardly any tourists even from Asia, the tour group leaders only blow on their batons nor small Russian flags.

And in some of Gum's window panes, only reflections of the people in Red Square can be seen because the showcases behind them are empty.

In the Gum, Inna sits on a bench and eats ice cream.

Inna is around fifty and from Khabarovsk, an industrial city in Russia's Far East.

She's always wanted to see Gum, and now that she's finally done it, the boutiques around her are almost all closed: "For technical reasons" is written on small DIN A4 signs on the doors, or "Because of Inventory”, both of which are, of course, incorrect: by early March most of the western high-end brands had already closed their shops in Russia because of Moscow's attack on Ukraine;

shortly thereafter, the EU and the USA banned the export of luxury goods to Russia.

But the shops in the Gum, although closed, are lit and decorated - even employees can be seen in some.

Nobody should notice at first glance that something is wrong.

It is being "renovated"

This is not the case everywhere in Russia: In a simpler shopping center in southwest Moscow, for example, some shops such as the popular underwear store Victoria's Secret, which is prominently located at one of the entrances on the ground floor, have lowered the shutters, which gives the scenery something depressing.

On other floors, however, the closures are hardly noticeable: the tarpaulins claim that something new is just emerging behind them.

In any case, the illusion of normality is almost perfect in Gum.

Inna believed her too: she thought the boutiques only opened later.

In any case, nothing can dampen her enthusiasm for the department store, because she was just in the Gastronom, the noble grocery store, which, like all Gum, is a haven of Soviet nostalgia.

A lot of it still looks the same as it did back then, even the clothes of the saleswomen: "Like in one of the films from the fifties or sixties," enthuses Inna.

In addition, the prices are so normal that you can even buy something small to eat.

Inna hasn't noticed any sanctions in her hometown, and she doesn't know whether the "special operation", as the war in Russia is officially called, is right: "I'm not in the army," she replies, almost offended.

Nina, who in normal times has a more important role in Gum than the saleswomen at Hermès and Prada, sees it in a similar way: Nina sells ice cream.

And unlike a Gucci bag, this ice cream, which has also been legendary since Soviet times, can be afforded by any tourist.

A ready-filled soft waffle with a scoop of cream or chocolate ice cream costs 100 rubles, the equivalent of around 1.70 euros.

People come to the Gum much more likely to look around and eat ice cream than to go to the boutiques, says Nina - that's why hardly anyone is bothered that many things are closed.

Nina lives in the outskirts of Moscow, and even there, she says, the sanctions have hardly been noticed so far.

Only the prices have gone up a bit.

She doesn't want to take a clear position on the war either: It's such a "complicated political situation",

she doesn't know who's right, she says evasively.

But she feels sorry for everyone who is dying, “hers and ours”, it would be best if the whole thing stopped quickly.

This stance is courageous in Russia, where war is portrayed as a necessary measure to protect against an aggressive NATO.