According to analysts at Cushman & Wakefield, within two years time, Russia is set to become the largest shopping centre in Europe. At the moment, France and Britain are well in the lead in terms of the number of shops and malls being opened each year. But by 2015, Russia will most likely have overtaken them as shoppers keep spending their roubles.

Currently, France has 16.95 million sq m of retail space, while Britain has 16.48 million. But Russia is very close behind with 16.47 million. With commercial property developers in Russia having already promised to open up 2.87 million sq m of shopping centres this year, the country is well on its way to overtaking France and Britain.

However, it is worth keeping in mind that not all of these projects will come to fruition and there are also a significant number of malls in development in other European countries. It seems likely that Russia's move to the top will be slow with a few jumps back and forth, but the regional development across the country should keep things moving as wealth spreads across Russia.

Tatyana Kluchinskaya, head of retail at Jones Lang LaSalle, told Russia Beyond the Headlines: “A few years ago, retail chains were reluctant to expand. Now, many brands are expanding regionally, including into small towns, their top priority. Leroy Merlin, Jeans Symphony and Subway are just some of the names that have already confirmed they are planning to establish a presence in cities with populations of fewer than one million people."

The company has announced that the investment, worth the equivalent of around $1 billion, is to play an important role in helping double the firm's gold production by 2018.

However, it has refused to disclose the source of the money, according to reports from ITAR-TASS.

The money is likely to be invested in the company's Natalka mine, Polyus' latest development. It is located in the north east corner of Russia and is around 400 km from the seaport of Magadan.

Its launch has been repeatedly postponed, with the latest comment from Polyus chief executive Yevgeny Ivanov stating that the plant was due to fully operations in 2012-13, in an interview with Reuters. This has since been pushed back and the company is due to review its option to start production in winter 2013-14. But the weighty investment suggests that the company still has some firm backers and growth is most definitely on the cards.

The price of gold has been falling in recent months, but global financial security remains sufficient that it is still in demand. Today (16 May) the price in Russia for a gram of 24k gold was 1,398.18 roubles.

According to the latest data from Walpole British Luxury, the organisation representing the UK luxury industry, the sector is set to grow by 12 per cent to a value of £7.4 billion. The BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries are seen as the main drivers of this growth, with many luxury brands planning to enter these markets as soon as possible.

The industry is set to depend pretty heavily on these countries as the European market continues to struggle amid problems with the economic downturn. Fortunately, new markets are providing a healthy outlet for growth and UK brands are expecting to enjoy annual double digit growth for the next five years, with 83 per cent of brands expecting to see a rise in sales this year.

London's status as an international hub makes it the most important city for luxury brands, with visitors from Russia and other overseas markets far more likely to shop in the capital than elsewhere. However, UK brands are reportedly branching out to sell their products in Manchester and Edinburgh as well.

Igor Shuvalov, the country's deputy prime minister, has put forward the suggestion, which would effectively create a domestic offshore bank.

Shuvalov has been in discussions with the Russian Central Bank and the International Investment
Bank, according to unnamed sources in the Finance Industry who spoke to Finmarket.

The International Investment Bank would play a key role if the concept was to come to fruition; it was established as a bank to serve the socials states back in 1970 and could form the basis for the offshore services. It already holds an exclusive status and is nearly the equivalent of an offshore bank as a member of the national deposit insurance scheme. It is already spared taxes and protected from any administrative and judicial interference, while the bank also holds diplomatic organisation status.

The bank is based in Moscow, but its member states include Bulgaria, Vietnam, Cuba, Mongolia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania.

As the global economy continues to shift, Russia is keen to push its status as a desirable investment destination for overseas spenders and maintain its status as one of the most profitable BRIC nations.

Data from analysis conducted by luxuryestate.com, the largest online source of high-end properties, has found that interest in buying property valued at €1million or above has increased by an average of two per cent over the past 12 months.

Russia was among the countries with the highest increases in demand, with a six per cent rise recorded. Greece clocked an eight per cent rise, while Italy's interest in luxury property rose by five per cent.

Silvia Pagliani, president of the website, commented on the data: “As expected, there is demand from countries which have a large number of high-net-worth individuals as residents, including Russia, Luxembourg, Switzerland.”

He added: “Our analysis also shows increased number of enquiries from countries going through an economic crisis, with statistics suggesting that many wealthy citizens are looking to invest in luxury property and seeking a safe haven for their assets.”

Interestingly, there were no Middle Eastern regions named on the list, perhaps due to the fact that the majority of these buyers are making use of brokers. This is likely to have contributed to the high level of demand seen from the UK.

This figure, nearly 25 times the size of investment over the first three months of 2012, also stands at three times the size of the previous investment record set in 2006.

The data comes from a report by the CBRE Group, which noted that the previous 2006 quarterly record came in at $843 million.

Valentin Gavrilov, head of research with the group, told Vedomosti: "Such figures are not typical for the first months of the year because large deals are traditionally closed at the end of the year." He added that the record is due to technical matters. For example, some of the most important deals that were formulated in 2012 weren't actually closed until the start of this year.

It appears that investment in retail property drove the figure up, accounting for about 60 per cent of all investments over the three-month period. Meanwhile, Moscow accounted for 96 per cent of transactions and 82 per cent of investments came from foreign businesses.

While things are gradually starting to look up, there is a risk that the financial crisis in Cyprus at the moment will have a knock-on impact on investment in Russia, so the rest of the year might not see such high levels of income into the sector.

All that is finally starting to change and the atmosphere at the latest Moscow Fashion Week has even been compared to that of some of the more established fashion events around Europe in cities such as Paris and Milan.

This year, Chloé, Guerlain, Marc Jacobs and more adorn the Russian capital and the GUM department store is full of windows for huge Western fashion houses, such as Maxmara. The big fashion publications all have a presence at the shows and many have their own Russian versions of their publications.

There is a definite atmosphere of progress. Accusations of popularity with Russians are no longer thrown around as insults to designers when a dress is deemed to be too flashy, with only those that are unaware of the change within the country making such a faux pas.

At the end of the five-day extravaganza at the Manège, a 19th-century neoclassical hall that sits beneath the Kremlin, Moscow's fashion elite will have been witness to the latest designs from Western designers and their own home-grown talent. It seems inevitable that this will allow the country to put its associations with garish dressing behind it and look ahead to a more stylish era of luxury.

Vedomosti business daily reported that the tax code amendments will result in an extra tax being imposed on cars worth more than 5 million roubles.

A double rate of tax will be imposed on vehicles that are less than five years old and cost between 5 and 10 million roubles. Meanwhile a triple rate will be issued on cars worth between 10 and 15 million roubles that are less than ten years old or those that are worth over 15 million roubles and are less than 20 years old.

The Bentley Continental series is the car most likely to be hit with the tax. It is the most popular car in the 10 million rouble plus price bracket and there are nearly 900 of the vehicles registered in Russia. The Maybach and the Rolls-Royce Phantom are the second and third most popular luxury vehicles in the country, according to statistics from the Avtostat agency.

Annual updates of the taxes due on the vehicles will be posted by the Industry and Trade Ministry, keeping tax payers up-to-date with changes to the transport tax system, which is being reformed at the moment. In addition to price, the new tax system is to take into account engine volume, the vehicle's age and the car's impact on the environment.

A recent article for the Moscow News spoke to various people involved in the sector and found that, while things are changing and developing, there is a general sense that the industry has delivered a steady level of demand.

Mikhail Sasonko, president of the Mikhailov Gallery, told the paper: "I've been in the jewelry business for more than ten years, and I can say with certainty that the luxury market in Russia is more stable, a stability that extends to my business."

He added that it is the quality of work that prompts Russian customers to keep coming back. However, Ilya Sorokin, the director of the Oldtimer Gallery, proposed a different reason for the steady flow of interest in his goods, retro and antique cars.

"People collect retro automobiles with different goals: investment or vanity, for example," he said. "However, in the overwhelming majority of cases, at the base of big collections, for all that, is a great and sincere love."

Interest in luxury items is nothing new in Russia but this trend to look at alternative products rather than the standard modern luxuries of the West is a relatively recent development and suggests that the country's tastes are starting to mature as a sense of stability continues to grow within Russia.

Switzerland has remained one of the most successful and stable economies in Europe and it appears that its property market is particularly appealing as a safe haven for wealthy property investors.

Last year a number of new laws and taxes made the country's property market somewhat harder to navigate, but this has not put overseas investors off and sales volumes remain high.

Figures from the Swiss Insight report by Knight Frank show that mainstream Swiss house prices have risen by 30 per cent since the start of 2007, outperforming all other main European markets.

Russians are among the overseas buyers that have been attracted to this market, along with other investors from Italy, Germany and of course Switzerland. The area of Lugano appears to be particularly attractive due to its Mediterranean climate and easy access to Milan airport.

The city is Switzerland's third largest financial centre and also boasts close connections to the Italian border.

Kate Everett-Allen, head of International Residential Research at Knight Frank, commented on the pull of the Swiss property market: "Switzerland’s benign stance on tax, its high political stability and its laws protecting banking secrecy, albeit their stringency is being tested by international pressure, and Switzerland’s ranking among the world’s wealthy looks assured.

"As a global financial centre with exemplary schools, offering a safe environment and with the Alpine resorts on its doorstep many consider it the prime location to bring up a family which explains Zurich and Geneva’s high ranking in the latest Wealth Report’s Global Cities Survey."