Riots in Moscow centre at wholesale market Stupinsky

Today Moscow police arrested thousands of workers, many of whom come from Caucasus, at the fruit and vegetable market Stupinsky situated in the southern part of the city. The arrests came after the previous days riots in the district, where nearly 400 Russians were arrested. The district demonstrated against the murder of a Russian, probably committed by a man from Caucasus. The demonstration began peacefully but it got out of hand when shop windows were smashed, a fire was started and the vegetable hall looted.

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There were many migrants in the hall from Caucasus and Asia. Militant demonstrators shouted slogans against the migrants, such as "white power". Many Russians have apparently had enough of the stream of immigrants into Moscow over recent years. By making the arrests the police are showing that the concerns of the population are being taken seriously.

Moscow has three wholesale centres of which Stupinsky is the largest and most important. It is located in the south of the city centre, can accommodate 200 dealers, and became a commercial centre after the break up of the Soviet Union. The wholesale market has an area of 120.000 m2 and an estimated turnover of $40 million dollars per day. Click here for a photo report of the wholesale centre.

The rumours are that the market will be closed for a few days. Lennart van den Heuval from Hoofdman-Roodzant, who specialises in export to Russia, agrees that the situation is uncertain. "We have some customers there and today there has been hardly any loading. We have to wait to see how the situation develops further. Luckily we have more customers outside Stupinsky so we are not standing completely still."

A fellow exporter agrees, "There is a lot of confusion in Russia and it is always a question of who pulls the longest chain. According to Nu.NL two wholesale markets now lay far apart from each other and give extreme nationalists the chance to pull this rift further. We hope that it quietens down quickly. People need to eat and the cars still continue. Many clients have multiple locations, so there is no immediate cause for concern."