At the same time, last year the number of new foreign players on the Russian market dropped sharply: while in 2024 24 brands opened stationary sales points in the country, at the end of 2025 – only 12. These included the Spanish jewelry brand Pdpaola, the Belarusian clothing manufacturer Mua and the Italian Kappa.
At the same time, since the beginning of 2026, at least seven international brands have withdrawn from Russia, including Turkish Les Benjamins and Karaca Home, as well as Kazakhstan's Gaissina, says the director of Nikoliers' commercial real estate department, Yulia Kuznetsova. Other companies, in current economic conditions, he says, they choose a cautious strategy and expand through marketplaces, local distributors or niche formats.
Foreign brands are currently not ready to invest in the Russian marketconfirmed the regional director of the commercial real estate department of NF Group, Evgeniya Chakberdiyeva. The main factor influencing this situation is the decline in consumer demand, as explained in CORE.XP. According to Rosstat, the consumer confidence index in the first quarter of 2026 decreased by 1 percentage point (pp) compared to the previous quarter — to minus 12%.
In this context, traffic in shopping centers is decreasing. According to the calculations of Focus Technologies, in the period January-April, attendance in shopping centers was 2%. lower than the year before. At the same time, in 2025 this indicator decreased by 3%. year to year. Compared to the pre-crisis year of 2019, traffic decreased by 25-26%.
Another reason for the decline in the activity of international brands is the war between the US and Israel against Iran, says Natalia Kermedczewa, an expert at the Association of Commercial Real Estate and Retail Experts (ATER). According to her Dubai has long been a key logistics hub for overseas deliveriesas a result of which, over the last five years, the trade in goods between Russia and the UAE has tripled and reached almost $10 billion. (PLN 36.3 billion). However, hostilities in the Middle East have led to higher shipping rates, delays in the delivery of collections and additional pressure on prices. In particular, delivery costs increased by 30-50%.
Russian retailers also began to close sales outlets en masse due to the decline in turnover. This trend started in 2025 and intensified this year. Earlier, the Central Bank reported that Russians had switched to saving mode. A study conducted by the regulatory body showed that consumers are refraining from purchasing expensive equipment, food, as well as clothing and footwear. According to a survey conducted by CSP “Platforma” and the company “OnIn”, the majority of Russians (82%) feel worried about the economic situation in the country and expect that in the next year the prices of food and municipal services will grow faster than their incomes.
