Art Moscow features works from 40 galleries – both from Russia and around the world. Originally, the art fair was supposed to run in May, but Expo Park Exhibition Projects Ltd., its organizer, pushed it back to hit at the same time as the state run Third Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art. The dual event may bring a bigger turnout, but it will have to overcome a 10 percent contraction in the Russian economy.

Counting against Art Moscow ... aside from general economic malaise ... is the fact that the sale of Russian artwork is down. The major auction houses in London moved only $48 million in Russian art in June, down more than half from the same auctions in 2008.

So, how likely is a stream of cash? Igor Markin, a big-time collector and owner of the Art4.ru museum, says he "hasn't bought anything in a long time."

The historic Hotel Ukraina, a city landmark in Moscow, Russia, is about to reopen as the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel. The property will have undergone a substantial renovation and its new look and feel is sure to impress.

The property will offer 507 guestrooms, along with 38 serviced apartments. The rooms will be 345 square feet in size, and the apartments will be quite large – from 540 square feet to 2,750 square feet. All rooms and apartments will be equipped with high-speed internet access.

What really makes the reopening interesting, though, is the connection between old and new. The property's art collection will be featured, consisting of nearly 1,000 paintings from the socialist realism school of thought, the "official" movement of the Soviet Union for more than six decades. Murals and ceiling frescoes will be restored and on display through the hotel's public spaces.

To enhance the experience, the hotel will feature a 43,000 square foot spa and wellness center, with a Turkish bath, Finnish sauna and six-lane swimming pool. There will also be a dedicated kids' club, giving parents some much-needed time to relax. After unwinding, dash up to the 31st floor bar and enjoy the views of Moscow. For another perspective on the city, you'll be able to take a culinary boat tour on the Moskva River.

"This hotel is another milestone in our history," says Kurt Ritter, President & CEO of Rezidor, which owns the property. "Rezidor, the international pioneer on the Russian hotel market, is today the leading international hotel operator in Russia and the CIS countries – and now manages an additional key property in Moscow, which is one of the most remarkable hotel structures in Europe."

Outside of Moscow, one of Russia's most expensive housing complexes has been constructed. Russian developer Aras Agalarov has created a community oh so modestly called the Agalarov Golf and Country Club. Sky News recently checked out the development which includes a hotel, sports complex and a golf course. There is also a "beach club" which fronts a lake and includes a restaurant. Agalarov told Sky News that he wanted to create a paradise. The community features huge multimillion dollar homes in a variety of different styles including Mediterranean mansions and columned Palladian palaces.

The community also has some pretty strict rules. No dogs outside and if you travel with bodyguards you must leave them outside the community in a special bodyguard lounge. Even though Russia's richest people have seen their fortunes diminished over the past year only three of the 15 mansions remain unsold. The Agalarov website features a variety of dazzling images of this property which hopes to provide everything a Russian multi-millionaire might require.

Just the other day we heard about how Russians are being urged to be more modest in their spending habits. This can't be good news for Nobu, the Japanese restaurant chain co-founded by Robert De Niro which is opening their latest outpost in Moscow. Bloomberg quotes Nobu's local partner, millionaire developer Aras Agalarov who promises the restaurant will be profitable but there's no denying that the timing is not ideal.

Nobu Moscow is decorated with dark wood and burnished gold light fixtures and is located on the top floor of Agalarov's Crocus luxury retail building. An average meal will probably cost around $90. Nobu restaurants now span the globe, most recently Nobu opened its first African restaurant in February.

Oh the plight of the Russian billionaire. They were just getting accustomed to diamond-studded cellphones, huge private yachts and luxury cars and now the boom seems to have gone bust. Bloomberg's Anastasia Ustinova has a piece on the new Russian thrift that is chock full of interesting quotes to parse including this one from Boris Teterev, president of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Moscow who says "You just can't party when others are starving." Conspicuous consumption in Russia reached heights that made America's wealthiest look modest by comparison but now that exuberant spending is falling out of fashion.

Last year Moscow had 74 billionaires, this year just 27. Forbes has reported that the 25 richest Russians lost a combined $230 billion during six months last year. It bears noting that one Russian billionaire, Alexander Lebedev, has threatened to sue Forbes over its estimation of his losses.

While spending may not be fashionable that doesn't mean it isn't going on in Russia, it just happening at a more low profile level. The Bloomberg article also quotes lawyer Alexander Dobrovinsky who speaks of names being removed from private jets. Once one has become accustomed to certain luxuries it can be hard to part with them. The trick for some is staying out of the public eye.

Part of the change comes from President Dmitry Medvedev who has come out against luxury trips for government officials and against spending in general. Even Mikhail Prokhorov, Russia's richest man, has declared in Snob, his lifestyle magazine for the ultra-wealthy, that "saving money is the trendiest thing to do at the moment."

Reports like this aren't welcome news to some luxury brands who were hoping that Russian big spenders could help keep them afloat in tough times. They may have to set their sights on the wealthy in China instead.

Dasha Zhukova, the stunning 27-year-old girlfriend of Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, has been named the new editor-in-chief of hip British luxury fashion mag POP. Zhukova is the co-founder of the fashion label Kova & T, as well as the Garage Centre for Contemporary Culture, Moscow's largest private art gallery. Despite an utter lack of magazine experience, she'll be working in partnership with POP editorial director Ashley Heath, leading some to snipe that she only got the job thanks to her mega-rich boyfriend.

"I am tremendously excited to take on this challenge," Zhukova, pictured above at right with Russian supermodel Natalia Vodianova, tells the London Telegraph. "I feel it's the perfect time to be showcasing and encouraging new energy and talent. We are working hard on a complete revamp of the magazine in order to provide a broader point of view focusing also on art, contemporary culture and the globalization of all things pop-related." The magazine is being relaunched on the 1st of September.

I've written about the troubles befalling American malls but it's tough in Russia too. The AP reports that the economic crisis and low oil prices are starting to make Moscow's popular GUM shopping center on Red Square look a bit like a ghost town. Some boutiques are closing while others are doing the same thing that their U.S counterparts are doing, offering deep discounts to lure anyone who might still be shopping. Russia has been a tremendous growth area for many international brands over the past few years as Russians became accustomed to increased spending power. Now it seems that they've followed the rest of the world into shopping retreat.

Back in October I mentioned that the managing director of Mercury, the country's biggest luxury goods group has said that sales have fallen at the popular TsUM shopping center. Mercury's stores sell many of the world's top luxury brands, everything from Gucci to Maserati cars and Chopard jewelry through the TsUM department store and other luxury shops.

Also it was recently announced that this year's Moscow World Fine Art Fair, set to take place at the end of May, has been canceled. The cancellation was mainly due to troubles getting sufficient sponsorship to cover the costs of the fair. ArtInfo reports that only a few dealers had pulled out of the fair but cancellations from Bulgari and Harry Winston prompted the organizers to cancel now rather than months from now when the economic crisis could be even worse. They hope to bring the fair back next year.

Award-winning British architect Lord Norman Foster has been called the west's only really high-profile architect to conquer Russia, with seven megabucks projects currently in the works there. However, the Art Newspaper reports that most of them are now facing severe obstacles due to the country's economic decline, which has done damage to their rich oligarch sponsors. For starters, the $2 billion Russia Tower in Moscow, planned as the tallest building in Europe, has stalled because the billionaire developer couldn't secure financing, as my colleague Deidre Woollard reported back in November. Work has also come to a halt on redevelopment of the Hotel Rossia site on Red Square, plans for which include a concert hall, museum, five-star hotels, luxury apartments, offices and retail space.

Meanwhile, a scheme to convert New Holland, an artificial island in St. Petersburg built by Peter the Great in the early 18th century, into a commercial and cultural hub slated for 2010, is far behind schedule as costs have skyrocketed by some $200 million. On the bright side, Foster's massive $400 million expansion plan for Moscow's State Pushkin Museum of Fine Art, is on track thanks to the patronage of Russian president Dmitry Medvedev. Foster hardly lacks for work in any case; as we recently reported, he's heading up a $1.5 billion project to design a fleet of Falcon 7X jets for NetJets Europe (above).

Last month I wrote about the Millionaire Fair in Istanbul but it appears it didn't go over quite so well in Moscow this time. The Wall Street Journal's Wealth Report led me to the Guardian's report of the Moscow Millionaire Fair where yachts were going two for one and no one was buying. Socialite Ksenia Sobchak, the fair's master of ceremonies, applauded guests for showing ups saying that: "Everyone is a superhero for finding it in themselves to come here tonight, to try to bask in the luxury." The fair was the usual dazzling spectacle of exotic cars, jewels and free-flowing Champagne. Moscow still has more billionaires than any other city but many have seen their fortunes dramatically pruned over the last year. The end result seemed to be a rather grim spectacle of luxury where people weren't quite sure if they were celebrating what remains or mourning what once was.

Russian oligarch Sergei Rodionov married a notorious Moscow femme fatale named Olga and then commissioned famed French photographer Bettina Rheims to do a big bucks X-rated photo shoot. He liked it so much he talked Rheims into two more photo shoots, and the results have just been published in book form, to a decidedly mixed reaction from Moscow society.

Russian billionaires are not shy about displaying their wealth, and surely The Book of Olga (right), which is so incendiary we can only show you the cover here, is just another such exhibition of prized assets. Of course, as a limited edition of 1,000 signed and numbered copies for $500 each, it also stands to make some money. If it succeeds, perhaps other Riussian oligarchs will follow suit and such books could become the hot new status symbol.

Could the Russian luxury market actually be slowing down? The managing director of Mercury, the country's biggest luxury goods group has said that sales have fallen at the popular TsUM shopping center. While most wealthy people are continuing to buy, there has been a slight slowdown and a possibility that the global gloom has finally seeped through to Russia. Mercury's stores sell many of the world's top luxury brands, everything from Gucci to Maserati cars and Chopard jewelry through the TsUM department store and other luxury shops. Overall, Mercury is still bullish on Russian spending. After all, the company did just pick up auction house Phillips de Pury in order to bring more contemporary art auctions to Moscow.

Over the past couple of years Russia's new wealthy have made some big moves in the art world. Most recently, as my colleague Jared Paul Stern reported that Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich will be bankrolling a major Francis Bacon exhibition at his girlfriend Dasha Zhukova's new Moscow art gallery in 2010. Now auction house Phillips de Pury has been sold to Mercury, a Moscow-based luxury goods group. Phillip's founder Simon de Pury will still remain as chairman and will have a share in the company. This isn't Phillips's first spin with a luxury conglomerate, it was was briefly owned by LVMH. For Phillips, the new owners will provide a big influx of capital so that Phillips can continue adding to their contemporary art auctions and it will also likely bring some important auctions to Moscow.

An unnamed Russian billionaire has splashed out $99 million on an ultra-luxe Moscow penthouse around the corner from the Kremlin. The seven-story, 14,000-sq.-ft. oligarch's aerie features five bedrooms, five baths, an indoor pool, separate children's floor and winter garden on the roof. It's located in the chic Chistie Prudy Residence complex, which has underground parking, private security and a water purification system. "For Moscow, it's an absolute record," the townhouse's real estate firm's spokesman Ruslan Barabash tells Reuters. The interior is done in a Moorish style with marble mosaics, myriad columns and arches, Moroccan-style lighting and garish touches galore.

[pix via BallerHouse]

The Wealth Bulletin has compiled a new list of the World's Top Ten Most Expensive Hotel Rooms, and the first and second both cost over $30,000 per night. And despite glum economic prospects, demand for these costly suites is as strong as ever, with waiting lists stretching from now until the end of December. Also worth noting is the appearance of Dubai (the Burj Al Arab's Royal Suite, above) and Moscow hotels on the list, which would have been unheard of just a couple years ago. Here are the Top 10:

1. Ty Warner Penthouse, Four Seasons, New York; $34,000 per night
2. Royal Penthouse Suite, President Wilson Hotel, Geneva; $33,000 per night
3. The Presidential Suite, Hotel Cala di Volpe, Costa Smeralda, Italy; $21,000 per night
4. Royal Suite, Burj Al Arab, Dubai; $18,000 per night
5. Royal Armleder Suite, Le Richemond, Geneva; $17,500 per night
6. The Ritz-Carlton Suite, The Ritz-Carlton, Moscow; $16,500 per night
7. The Royal Suite, Four Seasons George V, Paris; $16,000 per night
8. The Imperial Suite, Park Hyatt-Vendôme, Paris; $15,500 per night
9. Brook Penthouse, Claridges, London; $10,000 per night
10. Penthouse Suite, Hotel Martinez, Cannes; $9,300 per night

Our friends at Kempt spotted Dasha Zhukova, Russian oligarch / Luxist mascot Roman Abramovich's gorgeous 27-year-old girlfriend, partying with supermodels and movie stars at an A-list art gallery opening in Moscow the other night. Zhukova (right) rubbed elbows with the likes of Russian supermodel Natalia Vodianova (left), sexy star of several ad campaigns, at the opening for megabucks art dealer Larry Gagosian in a former chocolate factory. As we reported recently, Abramovich has bankrolled a new Moscow art gallery for Zhukova, which will mount a major Francis Bacon exhibition in 2010. At the Gagosian show, works by the likes of Jeff Koons and Vuitton collaborator Takashi Murakami were on display.