Kiosk Issue Explodes in One District

A few feet from the Universitet metro stop on Monday, OMON officers with machine guns watched as a fork lift hoisted one kiosk after another onto a flatbed truck. Gennady Sharapov was getting his point across.


Sharapov, who is in charge of street trade in the Gagarinsky regional administration, presided over the kiosks' removal with the satisfaction of a man who knows he has the last word. After a drawn-out conflict with the region's mostly Caucasian traders -- which culminated in the Jan. 23 bombing of his office -- Sharapov will spend the next two weeks clearing nearly every kiosk in the area, backed by the full power of Mayor Yury Luzhkov's government.


Last week, in an explicit response to "criminal conditions," Luzhkov ordered a blitz of the region's petty trade, reducing the number of kiosks from 220 to 30 by Feb. 15.


The original evictions were part of a longstanding Luzhkov plan to phase out street trade in Moscow. According to the plan, some 6,500 kiosks in the city are slated for removal by Feb. 1


The Jan. 23 explosion took place at 4 A.M., "exactly one week" after Sharapov issued eviction notices to area traders, and caused material damage but no injuries, Sharapov said.


The investigation into the explosion is not complete, and no arrest has been made, according to mayoral spokesman Andrei Varchenya. Nevertheless, Luzhkov's decision cites as its cause the "threats received from all sides by the Gagarinsky regional administration, which include the bombing of the region's office."


As he went to work on the 16 kiosks slated for "liquidation" on Monday, Sharapov said the source of the attack was clear enough.


"We are realists. We are out on the street. I don't think this bomb was from the mafia. More likely one of the kiosk owners just decided to express his displeasure with us," he said.


As they rushed to sell off their inventory, kiosk employees -- most of whom had purchased costly street trade licenses valid through this summer -- were open about expressing their displeasure. Many had just learned of the decision in city papers, and had arrived at work this morning to find Sharapov and his team poised. After working in his kiosk for three years, Vladimir Vysokov had just been given two hours to clear out.


"Who is more criminal? The man who put the bomb in Sharapov's office, or the one who just walked in here with a gun and evicted me?" asked Vysokov, 56, who receives a 123,000-ruble pension (about $30) and shares a two-room apartment with eight family members. "They say that the time of the kiosk is over, but it's not. The time of the kiosk will not be over until there is a middle class in this country."


Another trader, who asked to be identified only as Yury, estimated that 500 people would be unemployed by the end of the week. Monday was the eve of his 40th birthday, and with a grim smile he started doling out his stocks of chocolate and orange juice to passers-by.


"Are we mafia? We barely make enough to buy bread here. How many families will go hungry now?" said Yury. "We have nowhere to go. When we left Karabakh, our town was flattened. To build a house costs money."


But other Muscovites approved fully of the decision, which has been interpreted as direct action against organized crime, and local papers have hailed the move. Vechernyaya Moskva headlined its story "The Moscow Government Stops Kidding Around With Commersants" and Moskovsky Komsomolets wrote that Luzhkov "finally decided to show the mafia who's the real boss." The mayoral decree specifically orders Luzhkov's press service to disseminate the "measures taken to maintain order" through city papers.


And Sharapov's colleagues said they were glad to see the mayor striking back at traders. Many municipal officials have received threats, said Lev Moroshov, who is in charge of clearing kiosks in the Sokol region. "It's a perfectly logical step," he said. "Luzhkov made absolutely the right decision. There should be some concrete reaction."