The latest research from Bain & Company, a leading advisory firm to the global luxury goods industry, suggested that the market will exceed €200 billion in 2012. This is despite the earlier concerns that the turmoil within the eurozone and the cooling down of emerging market growth would hamper the industry.

It appears that to counterbalance these negative factors, the luxury market is broadening its scope geographically. Russia, alongside India, is among the regions to have now caught up in a delayed recovery following the recent recession, while China's rapid growth is putting it almost on a par with the two established markets.

Meanwhile, new customers are coming forth in areas such as Azerbaijan, Brazil, Malaysia and Vietnam, while growth for the most established countries, such as Europe and Japan, is lower but remains steady.

Claudia D'Arpizio, a Bain partner in Milan and lead author of the study, commented: "Brands must develop strategies with much wider reach than ever before.

"The lessons they learned in earlier emerging markets will help, but they now must manage even broader diversity of consumer preferences, and more variations in their model of how to take products to market."

The research also revealed a social change as well as geographical developments, with women starting to encroach on traditional male purchases, such as business attire and luxury watches, thanks to the growing independence of female expenditure.

A speech this week (9 May) was delivered by the president at a show of military provision on Red Square.

Months of protests and continued talk of corruption within the Russian government have shaken the country and its leadership, but Putin made use of the military parade and speech to attempt to reaffirm faith in the Russia's future.

However, his decision to hail two prominent opposition leaders for 15 days for their role in the protests against his return to the Kremlin may send out a message that prompts more concern that Putin is still stuck in a past mentality.

At the speech, which marked Victory in Europe day, Putin stated: "Russia consistently follows policy of strengthening global security and we have a great moral right to stand up determinedly for our positions because our country suffered the blow of Nazism."

He added that "barbarians" had plotted to destroy entire nations, but "the inevitable happened [and] responsibility and common resolve prevailed over evil".

The speech has been met with mixed response. While Russia's economy is likely to benefit from the stability that Putin's leadership provides, his handling of the protests has been seen by some as a sign of his own insecurity and has prompted concern about the future political direction of Russia.

Conducted by sociologists at the Romir research centre, the study found that a private yacht was seen as the main symbol as voted for by 53 per cent of those questioned. Property came in second place with 42 per cent, while a private plane was third with 38 per cent.

The study questioned 1,000 residents of cities with populations of 100,000 of more in eight federal districts and ensured those asked were aged between 16 and 50.

Other items flagged up as symbols of luxury living included expensive cars, diamonds, exotic holidays and antiques. Somewhat surprisingly, however, designer clothes and furs received relatively small percentages of the vote, with nine and eight per cent respectively, suggesting a change in aspirations among the population.

Meanwhile, France came in as the most popular country associated with luxury living, securing 33 per cent of the vote. The US came in second place with 23 per cent, while the UK made an appearance in third place with 21 per cent. Russia itself also cropped up with six per cent of the vote, perhaps due to Moscow's reputation as an expensive and luxurious destination.

These figures differed depending on the gender of those questioned, with over twice as may woman as men citing France as a luxury destination, while men were more likely to favour the US, Britain or Switzerland.

Russian attitudes to luxury and wealth are clearly starting to change as the country becomes more secure in its economic strengths and wealth and considers its people look ahead to what the future might bring.

The Italian super car designer will work with the luxury automobile and yacht company to launch the premises in Moscow at an official opening later this year. Sales, service and retail accessory sales for the full Lamborghini collection will all be catered for under the same roof once the set-up is completed, but for now customers are invited to the Lamborghini showcase at the Crocus City Mall for sales enquiries.

Last year, the firm sold a total of 26,0000 vehicles around the world, with the US identified as its main market. China, the UK, Germany Italy and the Middle East are also important markets and it is hoped that the wealthy residents of Moscow will be a valuable addition to the company's client list.

The two companies' plans were announced with a kickoff event at the Collector Gallery of Moscow and was attended by Russian celebrities, Lamborghini owners and the car company's chief executive Stephan Winkelmann.

A motorised star was also at the event, with the new Lamborghini LP700-4 Aventador introduced at the reception. There was also a fashion show featuring items from Lamborghini's collection.

The move by the Italian firm suggests a growing confidence in Russia's purchasing power as more and more Western firms start to invest in developing the Russian market.

However, new orders from President-elect Vladimir Putin could change the system as the president has stated that all bureaucrats should stop buying foreign-made cars.

While touring a major car factory, Mr Putin stated: “I believe that all state and municipal authorities, customers and companies who receive funding from the budget, should have to start buying cars produced on the territory of Russia and the Common Economic Area in the near future.”

Together, Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus make up the Common Economic Area. Forcing Russians to buy from this region could make a real difference to the economy. Between 2007 and 2009, government bodies and state-controlled companies spent around £100 million on luxury cars, but the country's domestic car manufacturers continued to struggle, the Independent reported.

The order will also include any cars assembled inside Russia, so the choice might not be quite as limited as initially thought. Peugeot, Ford and Hyundai are among the manufacturers to set up assembly plants within Russian borders, while favoured luxury brand BMW also has an assembly plant in Kaliningrad.

As ever, Mr Putin's orders were somewhat tinged. It has been confirmed that the new ruling will not apply to the president himself, or other top-ranking officials.

The organisation made the decision to doctor an image of its leader, Patriarch Kirill, and remove a gold Breguet watch he was wearing at the time before releasing it. However, the watch's reflection is clear to see in the highly-polished table at which the Patriarch is sitting in the image.

While the original image is dated 2009, the doctored version appeared on the church's website this month, the BBC reported. It shows the Patriarch meeting Russian justice minister Alexander Konovalov.

The watch is thought to be worth in the region of £19,000 and was spotted by Russian bloggers who highlighted the fact that the Patriarch has previously mentioned owning such an expensive watch but claimed to have kept it in its box as it was not part of his official attire.

A statement from the official's press service read: "We reject on principle any use of photo editing software to alter the appearance of images.
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"There will be a thorough investigation to determine why in this instance there was a crude violation of our internal ethical code. The guilty ones will be punished severely."

According to a recent report from global management consultancy group McKinsey, Russians spent $5.3 billion on luxury goods in 2011. This stacks up to about two per cent of the global market.

While in the past pricey jewellery and large big ticket items were their purchases of choice, this latest survey, however, showed that 45 per cent of Russian spending on luxury goods last year went on fine wines and spirits.

Fancy clothing accounted for around a third of expenditure, but traditional purchases such as accessories and beauty products remained relatively insignificant. This is a direct contrast to the other BRICS countries, with wealthy Chinese opting for jewellery and Brazilians diverting their top dollars towards high-end couture.

Alex Sukharevsky, partner at McKinsey, told the Financial Times that the results suggested that a country's luxury interests tend to change as it develops: “Wines and spirits are one of the affordable entry points to the luxury market. The more a country develops, the more luxury trends change.”

Meanwhile, Dmitry Pinsky, co-founder of Moscow-based importer of fine wines and spirits DP-Trade, told the paper that there is also a trend within Russians' purchasing patterns of alcohol.

In the past they might have bought the top end products in order to demonstrate their wealth and power. Now, however, “they are buying it to enjoy with food”, suggesting a maturity among the country's elite.

Mr Sukharevsky agreed: “It’s a myth that the Russian consumer buys without any attention to price or value. Russians are as sophisticated as European shoppers, sometimes even more sophisticated.”

The government is hoping to encourage serious Western institutional investors by conducting an overhaul of the country's domestic bond market.

A significant part of this will be to enable locally-issued treasury bonds – or OFZs – to be issued through international clearing houses. It is hoped that this will remove the regulatory barriers that have discouraged many foreign investors in the past.

By easing the routes to investment, Russia should start to catch up with the levels of foreign participation seen in comparable emerging markets by the end of 2014, according to estimates from Barclays capital.

Christian Keller, emerging Europe research head at Barclays Capital, told Reuters: "The mass of money that can shift is very large.

"You now have an opportunity of a market that has attractive yields, good debt dynamics, and has been under-appreciated."

At the moment, just four per cent of Russia's $90 billion of outstanding OFZs are owned by foreigners, which is significantly lower the rate seen in most other emerging markets.

The move to simplify the process of foreign investment should help to tackle this issue, along with Russian legislation that comes into force in July that will recognise investors as the beneficial owners of government bonds, rather than local custodians.

Werner Gey Van Pittius, from Investec in London, explained to the news agency the changes that this will bring to the market: "All of a sudden there's this market that no one's been involved in: everyone wants to try and grab a piece of the action."

A leaked document from the country's space agency suggests that Russia has a number of ambitious plans to expand its horizons in the near future.

The papers state that there are plans to send probes to Jupiter and Venus, land a man on the moon and build up a network of unmanned stations on Mars; all of this is rumoured for completion by 2030.

Kommersant, the business daily paper, reported that the Russian Federal Space Agency submitted the ambitious plans to the government earlier this month.

It is likely that prime minister Vladimir Putin will approve if his previous comments are anything to go by. At the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's space flight last year, Mr Putin remarked: “Russia should not limit itself to the role of an international space ferryman. We need to increase our presence on the global space market.”

More recent space ventures by Russia have predominantly been failures, with a number of engineering and technical problems preventing the country from seeing succeeding in this area. The future plans will need to be more meticulously thought out if Russia wants to see any glory in the future.

Immediately following the result, it appeared that investors were reassured by the stability that Putin is expected to help continue to develop. Anton Danilov-Daniliyan, expert council chairman at the Business Russia association, told the Moscow News that the group is "positive about the election results".

However, by the evening after the election day there were anti-Putin protests on the streets and an onslaught of international media criticism followed. It appears that this prompted a sell-off from investors and the RTS index was down 3.3 per cent by Tuesday, reports from the Financial Times confirmed.

Meanwhile, credit rating agency Fitch has added to the pessimistic outlook, issuing a report at the start of the week highlighting its downgrading of Russia's outlook in January from positive to stable and warning that the agency is "closely monitoring how quickly the new government will act to reform the Russian economy and hasten fiscal consolidation".

It added that there is a level of "political risk" in the country at the moment that also needs to be taken into account as the uncertainty remains regarding "how Russia will shift from the current managed political system to a more pluralistic system with better governance".

Investors have also shown concern with regards to oil prices, something which has long-since had a strong impact on Russia's economy.

With so much change in the air and a global economic situation that is still far from stable, investors will be keeping a close eye on how things develop in the months ahead.