Pedestrians bundled against the Moscow chill push through plazas dotted with storefronts touting luxury goods. In spite of recent high oil prices and an expanding middle class, Russia still suffers from inflation, corruption, and an unstable banking system, making high-end goods unreachable to all but Russia’s elite.

(Photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Moscow: The New Revolution," April 1997, National Geographic magazine)