Antonina Yudina looks out at life through the letter “o” in Sony. The giant billboard, advertising the Japanese company’s latest camcorder, obscures the facades of two adjacent seven-storey buildings in central Moscow, including Antonina’s kitchen window.

“It’s very dark in here now,” says Antonina, a pensioner who has lived in the building all her life. “But I’ll probably get used to it. They only put it up yesterday. I haven’t received any compensation.”