AP
Following
the alleged murder of a young Russian by a foreigner, angry protesters
rioted at a nearby wholesale market known to employ immigrants. Now
authorities have cracked down on the market, believed to be controlled
by criminal gangs.
ANZEIGE
Larissa, a farmer's wife from Astrakhan, wanted to sell her harvest in Moscow. "I've got 13 tons of red bell peppers in the truck, and they've been rotting there since Sunday," she said.
That's when an angry crowd of residents from the nearby West Biryulyovo district and aggressive neo-Nazis from other areas stormed the market. The trigger was the death of a young man named Yegor Sherbakov, who was knifed in the immediate vicinity of the market.
Witnesses described the alleged perpetrator as a "non-Russian." An Azerbaijani man has been arrested for the crime, and Russian officials say he confessed to killing the man in self-defense.
But to many it seemed obvious that the murderer would be connected to the wholesale market. Gangs originating in Central Asia and the Caucasus have controlled the fruit and vegetable trade in Moscow for the past two decades and Pokrovksaya is the largest of the Russian capital's wholesale markets. The complex extends over 35 hectares (86 acres) and has over 1,600 spaces for trucks to park. Some 40 to 50 percent of all Moscow vegetable deliveries pass through Pokrovskaya, with annual sales of $9 billion (€6.6 billion).
Risky and Lucrative
It's a lucrative business. Moscow fruit and vegetable prices are on average significantly higher than those in Germany. One reason for the higher prices might be the cuts demanded by criminal intermediaries. Merchants are obligated to pay the mafia 100,000 rubles ($3130) per ton they process. But the risks are as high as the profits. Since 2007 approximately 20 murders have been considered linked to the struggle for control of Pokrovskaya.
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Russia Beyond The Headlines
Regions join anti-immigrants riots in Biryulyovo aftermath
October 16, 2013
The conflict that started in the capital has spread to other major cities.
Experts say the situation surrounding the flow of immigrants in the regions has long been a problem, and the conflict that flared up in Moscow has merely served to stoke the mood of dissatisfied Russians.
On Oct. 14, against the backdrop of the interethnic conflict in Moscow’s district of Biryulyovo, the center of another Russian city, Saratov, was witness to a fight between local youths and immigrants from the Caucasus region that involved some 20 people. On the same day, the city was the scene of a march staged by nationalists — a sign of solidarity with Sunday’s unrest in Moscow’s Birulevo district.
In the south of the country, residents of Krasnodar also decided to support Muscovites by staging an unauthorized demonstration on Oct. 14.
However, according to Interfax, the police prevented an attempt to stage an unauthorized nationalist protest in Krasnodar; only several dozen people answered the calls posted on social networks and youth forums to meet at 7 p.m. on the city’s Teatralnaya Square in support of the residents of Moscow’s Biryulyovo district.
At the appointed hour, Krasnodar’s central square was cordoned off by police officers, who maintained control over the situation.
In addition to Saratov and Krasnodar, mass events were planned in a number of other major Russian cities — Stavropol, Rostov-on-Don, Volgograd, Astrakhan and Tula — with young people using social networks to express their readiness to take to the streets in support of those protesting events in Birulevo.
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Related:
Hundreds detained during anti-immigrant riots in MoscowSuspected Biryulyovo killer detained outside Moscow - police
Riot police face off against protestors in southern Moscow
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