Work halted on Europe's tallest building

The Russian developer behind Europe's tallest building - the Norman Foster-designed Russia Tower - has halted work on the project.

A Russian news agency reported that Russian Land boss Shalva Chiriginsky was blaming the credit crunch for the move.

Russia Tower would be 600m tall if built. The current tallest building in Europe, also in Moscow, is the 268m Naberezhnaya Tower.

Chiriginsky told Interfax that Russian Land projects had "suffered" because of its place at the "super-luxury" end of the market.

"Our problem is that we cannot carry out these projects in the current economic situation and given the current state of financial institutions in the country and abroad," he said.

"The interest rate is high and there are no credit resources."