Exhibitions are a growing and prospective sector in Russia as demonstrated throughout the past couple of years and substantiated by the International Exhibition and Fair Union.
      
      
       Exhibitions held by this organization alone – 1,238 in total in 40 cities – enjoyed a turnover of $279.9m. Foreign companies lose fear in coming to Russian market and introducing themselves. Their share in the workshops rose by 12% featuring 23,860 firms whereas the total amount of participants runs into over 130,000 companies taking up 1.8 million sq meters.
      
      
       The best-visited cities are, of course, Moscow and St. Petersburg where business life is busy and where infrastructure has been developed to suit any needs. Hard on the heels, though, are Krasnodar, Rostov-na-Donu, Sochi (southern regions), Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod (Volga Area) and Irkutsk (Siberia), attractive colleagues specific to the industries popular in the corresponding region.
      
      
       In Moscow, exhibition palaces feature Gostiny Dvor (13 th sq m, with no match for it after the state-of-the-art renovation, a stone’s throw from the Kremlin), Expocenter (70 th sq m, 5 km from the Kremlin), Krokus Expo (29.6 th sq m, Circle Road, on the outskirts of Moscow, but in a very convenient location), Sokolniki (33 th sq m, north-east of Moscow), All-Russian Exhibition Centre (VVZ, former VDNKH, 108.5 th sq m, 8 km from the Kremlin), International Trade Centre (3 th sq m, 4 km from the Kremlin), T-Modul (Tishinka Trend Triangle, 1,5 th sq m, just farther than Sadovoye Kolzo, or Garden Ring, to the north-west of Moscow).
      
      
       The price for one sq meter used to range from ?150 to 300, although today organizers are faced up with higher expenses sponsoring outdoor ads and mass coverage.