The Russian property website Sravny.ru – a kind of Russian Zoopla – reported that around 66% of Russians have already decided to postpone the purchase of a new home. Knauf was historically a very important player in the Russian construction market and operated 20 plants throughout the country. Its two Russian factories have a combined annual production capacity of around 450 million bricks – equivalent to a month’s output of the entire Russian brick industry. Still, the Russian construction sector and local companies have traditionally been heavily dependent on western partners and their technologies. Most of the construction equipment and machinery used on Russian construction sites are traditionally of western origin.