Russian models slice up Chanel bags in protest at sales ban

Russian influencers are filming themselves angrily shredding Chanel bags amid the luxury designer's response to the invasion of Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin and his nation has faced many repercussions from around the world after he decided to invade Ukraine. In response to the war, Russia has seen wide-ranging sanctions with businesses boycotting continuing to work with Russia. This includes Chanel, which shut down its stores in Russia.

Chanel subsequently announced that the brand would stop customers buying bags who intend to take them to Russia. This would be in compliance with the European Union's sanctions that ban the sale to Russia of luxury goods priced higher than €300.

On Instagram, creator Victoria Bonya who boasts 9.3 million followers on the platform shared a video of herself with scissors chopping up the Chanel bag in hald.

In the video she says, "If Chanel house does not respect their clients, why do we have to respect Chanel house?"

Her caption echoes her message, "Never seen any brand acting so disrespectful towards their clients as @chanelofficial #byebyeCHANEL."

She is just one of the many models who have shared similar videos destroying lavish designer bags.

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DJ Katya Guseva posted her own video and wrote, per Unilad: "I always dreamed that a Chanel handbag would appear in my wardrobe and it happened last year."

"But after I learned about the brand's policy towards Russians, I decided to remove these bags from my daily life until the situation changes and support the challenge from Marina Ermoshkina!"

"With this video, I do not call for the destruction of things of any brands, I just want to say that not a single bag, not a single thing is worth my love for my Motherland, and my respect for myself. Chanel is just an accessory. An accessory that for some reason decided that it had the right to humiliate people, my compatriots, decided to discriminate people on the basis of nationality, which I will not tolerate."

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