The Tverskoi Passazh shopping center in central Moscow was closed Thursday after a reported raid, allegedly linked to a dispute with the Office for Presidential Affairs.
Sergei Zabarin, a lawyer for Piramida 2000, which rents the premises for the shopping mall from publishing house Izvestia, told RIA-Novosti that a group of unknown men broke into the mall at around 10 p.m. on Wednesday, chased out the security guards and barricaded the doors.
Entrances to the below-ground mall from Pushkin Square and metro Tverskaya remained closed Thursday morning, the news agency reported.
Zabarin linked the raid to an arbitration case between Piramida 2000 and the Office for Presidential Affairs, which he said had filed a lawsuit requesting that Piramida's 20-year rental contract, signed in 1996, be terminated.
(MT)
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