Poor Russians feel the pain of collapse of rouble and rising food prices

Oyster Bar built a thriving business serving molluscs to well-heeled Muscovites. Then came Western sanctions, and the restaurant was forced to rechristen itself this autumn. Today, it serves up burgers and pizza under a new name: No Oyster Bar.

Co-owner Ilya Sokhin said a Russian ban on European oyster imports hit hard, and the average bill at his restaurant - a sleek new building in the famous Gorky Park - has more than halved.

Russia's economy has been battered this year by uncertainty over the conflict in Ukraine, the falling price of oil, Western sanctions and retaliatory Russian import bans.

Poor and middle-class Russians are increasingly challenging government insistence that a 40 per cent drop in the value of the rouble - now worth a record low of 54 to the US dollar - will affect mainly the rich.

Approval ratings have so far remained high for President Vladimir Putin, who has staked his reputation on Russia's re-emergence as an economic powerhouse after the turbulent 1990s. Yesterday he mounted a robust defence of his foreign policy, in his annual state of the union address, trumpeting his annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula and accusing Russia's enemies of seeking to destroy its economy through sanctions. Feisty though it was, the speech is unlikely to mollify middle-class families and even poorer Russians as their quality of life declines.

Mikhail Antonov, 27, a store manager, had saved up this year to drive with friends from Moscow to Germany, and spend a week visiting Christmas markets. But the 30,000 roubles he squirrelled away have gone from being worth €670 (HK$6,395) at the start of the year to less than €450 (HK4,295) today. He has axed the trip.