She prefers not to give her full name, probably for tax reasons. Both her parents are doctors. She is 40-years old and a qualified child psychiatrist. For four years she has been one of the army of chelnoki , the shuttle traders who travel abroad to buy goods and sell them on the sprawling ramshackle markets known in Russia as jarmarki . The jarmarki , covered in mud for much of the year, are crawling with people and one of the most visible signs of the success of private enterprise.
Tax evasion prevents any realistic estimate of the turnover of the flourishing shuttle trade.
But the chelnoki are everywhere. You can recognise them at airports by their shoddy sports bags crammed full of goods. Those who do really well transport their wares in container lorries. She rolled up her sleeves, took her modest savings and went off to Greece to buy a few furs. On her return, she had no trouble selling them.