Renata Zaripova, Managing director of a sex shop says that 12 years ago, when she opened, the prevalence of window shopping was a real problem. “It was all new for them. People paid a symbolic entrance fee and looked at goods. The elderly still do it, actually; they come to our shops just to have a look; they say: ‘We’ve never had anything like this; so let us at least look at these things at your place’. This is nice. But then it developed into shops.”

Presently, the situation is very different. According to famous Russian pop music producer Bari Alibasov, Russian vendors are currently on par with their foreign colleagues.

“I visited and unveiled almost all the previous events. Most of them resembled Moscow’s Cherkizovskiy market. I even used to believe that it’s necessary to go to Europe to buy a quality sexual product. Now, I can see, looking at this display, that I can buy everything in Moscow. And not only in Moscow, because the sexual products displayed here have come from all parts of Russia. I am very happy for the Russians.”