内容摘要：“People don’t like to answer an advert for criminal scamming, and it’s hard to advertise that. But once they’re there, it’s like – actually, we will pay you. We may have taken your passport, but there is a route to quite a lucrative opportunity here and we will give you a small part of that,” he said.

“People don’t like to answer an advert for criminal scamming, and it’s hard to advertise that. But once they’re there, it’s like – actually, we will pay you. We may have taken your passport, but there is a route to quite a lucrative opportunity here and we will give you a small part of that,” he said.

"We have access to markets in South Korea, the USA, Europe, the Arab Emirates and China. We can bring in almost any cars that people desire," Vladislav, whose surname is being withheld due to safety concerns, told Al Jazeera in a phone interview.Vladislav said his company works with brands that “on paper” have officially left Russia.

"Legally, they are not involved, but they are well aware that their cars are coming into Russia. For the most part, they turn a blind eye. We don’t talk about politics. Business relationships - that’s what’s important”.Vladislav, like other businessmen who spoke to Al Jazeera, declined to talk about his supply chains in detail."Russian business does everything possible to fill the gap. For many,  this is an opportunity to carve out their niche in the market," Natalia Zubarevich, a professor at Moscow State University and an expert in regional socioeconomic development, told Al Jazeera.

“The market cannot be empty if you can profit from it.”Still, the Russian market has changed in some ways since the invasion.

"Supply chains are now longer, goods become more expensive,” Burmistrov from Infoline-Analytics told Al Jazeera.

Burmstrov said that consumers have not seen the true impact of higher prices because the Russian government has provided low-interest subsidised loans to support parallel imports.Upon returning with his son after al-Assad was toppled in December, Shamtan discovered his village of al-Hawash, situated amid farmland in central Hama province, severely damaged.

His house had lost its roof and suffered cracked walls. Nevertheless, “living in the rubble is better than living in the camps” near the Turkish border, where he had resided since fleeing the conflict in 2011, Shamtan explained.Since al-Assad’s downfall after nearly 14 years of war, the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration reports that 1.87 million Syrians who were refugees abroad or internally displaced have returned to their places of origin.

The IOM identifies the “lack of economic opportunities and essential services” as the greatest challenge facing returnees.Unable to afford rebuilding, Shamtan decided approximately two months ago to leave the camp with his family and young grandchildren, and has begun planting wheat on his land.