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Sobyanin: Vegetable warehouse owners in Biryulyovo ruined by greed

"They wanted to grab as much money as possible notwithstanding gross violations of sanitary norms, labor and migration legislation," the Moscow mayor added
Photo ITAR-TASS/Sergei Karpov
Photo ITAR-TASS/Sergei Karpov

MOSCOW, October 16 (Itar-Tass) - The owners of the vegetable warehouse in Biryulyovo are to blame for its closure. They have been ruined by greed, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in an interview published in the Kommersant.Vlast edition on Wednesday.

"Yes, this is a private-owned enterprise, private property. But I think that the owners themselves are to blame for what has happened. With such a trade volume, such incomes, they could have transacted their business in a more civilized way and not to bring the matters to such a situation. Avarice has ruined them. They wanted to grab as much money as possible notwithstanding gross violations of sanitary norms, labor and migration legislation. Well, the outcome of that we have seen," the Mayor said.

Sobyanin believes that business must be conducted in a civilized manner: "If you are unable to transact business in a civilized way, then you have to be punished".

Sobyanin pointed out that many breaches of migration legislation had been committed over several years. "The owners brought things to a situation when we had to take tough measures," he said. He also pointed out that he does not believe that there was a recarving of property in the case connected with the vegetable warehouse and that the situation following the murder of Yegor Shcherbakov was made use of by the competitors of the Novyye Cheryomuski vegetable warehouse.

"We know exactly that no such things happened as regards the vegetable warehouse. Secondly, authorities are not some blockheads who follow instructions given to them. The situation is politicized. Yes, people demanded radical measures. And I think that we must heed people's opinion," Sobyanin said.

According to his data, apart from this vegetable warehouse, 30 markets and 10,000 retail trading outlets have been also closed down in the city over the past 2.5 years. "Closed down, incidentally, were markets which cannot even compare with the Novyye Cheryomushki: the selfsame Luzhniki market, and Emeral... Even the Novyye Cheryomuski in comparison with them may take ease, so to say," the Mayor pointed out.

He acknowledged that the situation similar to that in Biryulyovo may arise "at all markets and at all trading warehouses of this kind". One of the options to prevent that, Sobyanin sees in establishing an appropriate infrastructure "so that there would be normal stores and more automated enterprises instead of open-air markets and such vegetable warehouses which make use of a huge amount of manual labor. Such facilities must be located outside, not inside the city".