Nestled in south east Finland, this town was the first stop in Europe for many Russian shoppers.<br/> <br />For the past two decades Lappeenranta, just 30 kilometres from the Russian border, has been booming with tourists from the east. But now it's struggling.<br/> <br />Signs advertise the latest sales but few shoppers roam the aisles.<br/> <br />(SOUNDBITE) (English) CHAIRMAN OF CITY COUNCIL OF LAPPEENRANTA, HEIKKI JARVENPAA, SAYING:<br/> <br />"We have calculated that Russian tourists have created about 2,600 working places in Lappeenranta, I mean in normal times. But today the situation is different, and I guess that we should decrease by about thousand, one thousand working places."<br/> <br />Russia's weaker rouble and a sanctions dispute between the European Union and Moscow is taking a big bite out of the local economy.<br/> <br />Out of two million foreign tourists visiting Lappeenranta a year, 1.5 million were Russian. But over the past three months that number has decreased by about 40 percent.<br/> <br />Lu
