Tverskaya, a street with the Kremlin at its southern tip, is now the third most expensive place to shop, eclipsed only by New York's Fifth Avenue and the Champs Elysées in Paris. Known as Gorky Street in Soviet times, the resurgence of Tverskaya is another example of the dramatic turnaround in Russia's economy since energy prices began to soar at about the time that Vladimir Putin became president in 2000.
Once lined with churches that were destroyed by Stalin and supermarkets known for their queues and empty shelves, Tverskaya is now home to the Moscow outlets of many leading fashion designers as well as Russian oligarchs.
