
The Cherkizovsky Market (russian: Черкизовский рынок), also known as Cherkizon (russian: Черкизон) was Europe's largest
marketplace
A marketplace or market place is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. In different parts of the world, a marketplace may be described as a ''souk'' (from the Arabic), '' ...
, located in
Izmaylovo District
Izmaylovo District (russian: райо́н Изма́йлово) is a district in the Eastern Administrative Okrug of the federal city of Moscow, Russia. Population:
It is a historical part of Moscow, the ancestral land of the Romanov noble ...
,
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...
, near the
Lokomotiv Stadium and
Cherkizovskaya Moscow Metro station. Owned by
Telman Ismailov
Telman Mardanovich Ismailov ( az, Telman Mərdan oğlu İsmayılov, russian: link=no, Те́льман Марда́нович Исмаи́лов; born 26 October 1956) is an Azerbaijani-born businessman and entrepreneur of Mountain Jewish origin. ...
's AST Group, in its heyday the market generated employment for an estimated 100,000 workers, mostly Asian immigrants.
[Stewart, Catrina]
Russia's largest market closed amid race tensions
''Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. n ...
'', July 16, 2009. Moscow city authorities closed the market down on June 29, 2009 on grounds of numerous violations of regulations and illegal activities.
In July 2009 Moscow authorities confirmed that a
Chinatown would replace the market.
History
The market was founded in the early 1990s. With an area around 300 hectares, it was the largest market in Russia, and one of the largest in Europe. Thousands of
migrants
Migrant may refer to:
Human migration
*Human migration
*Emigration, leaving one's resident country with the intent to settle elsewhere
*Immigration, movement into a country with the intent to settle
* Economic migrant, someone who emigrates from o ...
from
China and
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the former ...
worked and lived there, many illegally. However, Moscow city authorities, in an effort to curb the spread of
counterfeit goods
Counterfeit consumer goods (or counterfeit and fraudulent, suspect items - CFSI) are goods, often of inferior quality, made or sold under another's brand name without the brand owner's authorization. Sellers of such goods may infringe on eith ...
and protect Sino-Russian trade, declared their intention to shut down the market several times since 1999.
On August 21, 2006, a blast hit the marketplace, killing 14.
The bombing was carried out by members of the
radical nationalist group ''
Spas Spas or SPAS may refer to:
* Spa, a therapeutic water treatment
Geography
* Spas, Russia, several rural localities in Russia
*Spas, Lviv Raion, Lviv Oblast, a village in Lviv Raion in Lviv Oblast, Ukraine
*Spas, Sambir Raion, Lviv Oblast, a villa ...
''. Eight group members were later found guilty of the attack along with some other bombings carried out by the Moscow city court in May 2008, and given prison sentences ranging from 2 years to
life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed te ...
.
Closure
On June 1, 2009, Prime Minister
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime m ...
complained at a government meeting that last year's large-scale confiscation of smuggled Chinese goods on the Cherkizovsky market hadn't resulted in convictions. According to
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...
,
The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, wh ...
and others, Putin was furious that Telman Ismailov in late May threw a lavish party in
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
, celebrating the opening of an opulent resort hotel there, despite him having made his fortune in Russia.
[Mark Franchetti]
Vladimir Putin 'furious' over flaunting oligarch Telman Ismailov
''The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, wh ...
'', June 28, 2009.[Oligarch pays for party that enraged Putin](_blank)
''The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...
, July 16, 2009.
On June 18, 2009, Russian authorities said they would destroy more than 6,000 containers holding an estimated $2 billion worth of pirated and smuggled goods which entered into Russia through the practice of
gray customs clearance.
[Authorities shut Europe's largest market](_blank)
Russia Today
RT (formerly Russia Today or Rossiya Segodnya (russian: Россия Сегодня) is a Russian state-controlled international news television network funded by the Russian government. It operates pay television and free-to-air channel ...
Retrieved on 2009-10-02
On June 25,
Alexander Bastrykin
Alexander Ivanovich Bastrykin (russian: Алекса́ндр Ива́нович Бастры́кин, born August 27, 1953, in Pskov) is a Russian official, former First Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia, and former Chairman of The Investigati ...
, head of the Investigative Committee of the
Prosecutor General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general.
In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...
's Office turned on the market, demanding its shutdown. State-run
Rossiya TV channel
Russia-1 (russian: Россия-1) is a state-owned Russian television channel, first aired on 14 February 1956 as Programme Two in the Soviet Union. It was relaunched as RTR on 13 May 1991, and is known today as Russia-1. It is the flagship cha ...
aired a programme investigating the smuggling connected to the marketplace and attacking Ismailov.
Moscow mayor
Yuri Luzhkov Yuri may refer to:
People and fictional characters
Given name
*Yuri (Slavic name), the Slavic masculine form of the given name George, including a list of people with the given name Yuri, Yury, etc.
*Yuri (Japanese name), also Yūri, feminine Jap ...
, despite being a close friend of Ismailov,
pledged to remove the market.
On June 29, The market was temporarily shut down by Russia's consumer watchdog Rospotrebnadzor after a series of checks revealed 464 violations of
fire safety
Fire safety is the set of practices intended to reduce the destruction caused by fire. Fire safety measures include those that are intended to prevent the ignition of an uncontrolled fire and those that are used to limit the development and ef ...
regulations. The complete list of violations included poor sanitary conditions, concerns over how goods were stored, and concerns over the living conditions of thousands of the market’s employees.
On July 15, Mayor Luzhkov made it clear that the closure was permanent,
[Moscow mayor says notorious market will not reopen](_blank)
''RIA Novosti
RIA Novosti (russian: РИА Новости), sometimes referred to as RIAN () or RIA (russian: РИА, label=none) is a Russian state-owned domestic news agency. On 9 December 2013 by a decree of Vladimir Putin it was liquidated and its asset ...
'', July 15, 2009. and the dismantling of the market began the following September.
Aftermath
The sudden shutdown of the market left tens of thousands of workers, many of them
illegal immigrants
Illegal immigration is the migration of people into a country in violation of the immigration laws of that country or the continued residence without the legal right to live in that country. Illegal immigration tends to be financially upwar ...
, jobless and in financial trouble because they were unable to sell their goods.
China was worried by the situation around the market and in late July sent a
MOFCOM
The Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China (MOFCOM) is a cabinet-level executive agency of the State Council of China. It is responsible for formulating policy on foreign trade, export and import regulations, foreign direct ...
delegation headed by Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce
Gao Hucheng
Gao Hucheng (; born August 1951) is a retired Chinese politician and business executive. Between 2013 and 2017, he served as the Commerce Minister of the People's Republic of China. Previously, he was Vice Minister of Commerce and Vice Chairman ...
to negotiate the fate of the Chinese vendors.
Chinese merchants to retrieve seized goods in closed Moscow market
/ref> Moscow's consumer department cooperated with the Chinese coordination group and agreed to allow Chinese merchants to clean up their stalls and ship out their merchandise from the closed market during a specific period of time every day.
Gao said China had no objections to Russia's crackdown on illegal trade, but that the Russian side should try its best to keep the economic losses of the Chinese business people to a minimum. Some Chinese analysts noted that Russia's cracking down on smuggling and rectifying its domestic markets would help regulate trade channels, improve trade environment, and therefore be overall beneficial to the sustained and sound development of bilateral trade between the two countries in the long run.
A poll conducted by the Levada Center
The Levada Center is a Russian independent, nongovernmental polling and sociological research organization. It is named after its founder, the first Russian professor of sociology Yuri Levada (1930–2006). The center traces back its history to ...
showed that among the 94% of Moscow citizens who knew about the closure, 67% supported the move. An online poll conducted by the newspaper Izvestia
''Izvestia'' ( rus, Известия, p=ɪzˈvʲesʲtʲɪjə, "The News") is a daily broadsheet newspaper in Russia. Founded in 1917, it was a newspaper of record in the Soviet Union until the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991, and describes ...
also showed that over 80% of respondents were in favor of the shutdown.[Cherkizovsky Market closure heralds transformation of trade](_blank)
China Daily
''China Daily'' () is an English-language daily newspaper owned by the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party.
Overview
''China Daily'' has the widest print circulation of any English-language newspaper in China. ...
Retrieved on 2009-10-02
References
{{Reflist, 2
2009 in Russia
Buildings and structures in Moscow
Central Asian diaspora in Russia
Chinese diaspora in Europe
Retail markets in Russia