Russians should be carried free

       The centre of petty commerce, the Istanbul Laleli market, has been going through its most fruitless period of the year these last 6-7 days. Shop owners, who have been trying to impress the few Russian tourists wandering the streets in order to make a sale, have found that even lowering their prices drastically is not helping their sales. Hotel owners, who were once used to their hotels being 100% full are now trying to entertain the few Russian tourists residing there (now only full 7-15%). The streets that are at the heart of petty commerce, Azimkar, Hayri Tuccariye street, Kiska and Gencturk, are visited by Tunisians, Egyptians and Algerians alongside Russians, although they are few in number and do not spend much.
       The shop owners' last hope is the end of the World Cup finals the 12th of July. Most of the small-scale shop owners hope that once the World Cup is over the Russian tourists will flock back to Laleli. The Laleli area, which made around 6 billion dollars last year will most probably not even make half that much this year.