What Turkey’s Fake Kremlin Tells Us About the Ruble Crash

When Turkish conglomerate MNG Holding built the 874-room Kremlin Palace Hotel in beachfront Antalya in 2003, its aim was to make Russian tourists feel at home with a replica of its namesake, the landmark Moscow fortress. With the ruble’s collapse, it could also leave them feeling poorer.

Red Square is dominated by a vast swimming pool, St. Basil’s Cathedral houses restaurants, and there’s a disco inside a copy of Moscow’s neo-classical Senate, where president Vladimir Putin has his offices. And in the gift shop, a tracksuit with a patterned print of U.S. $100 bills runs to $80 -- about 4,900 rubles today, up from 3,750 rubles a month ago -- a figure that may be even greater when the high season begins next spring.