Press Release, September 1, 2013

On September 1, Candidate for Moscow Mayor Sergei Mitrokhin and the residents of the Mosrentgen settlement (New Moscow) inspected a big part of the market “Slavyansky World”, which was ostensibly closed by the order of the temporary acting Mayor Sergei Sobyanin. The inspection found out that the market not only continues to work, but also breaks the law.  YABLOKO’s municipal candidate in Mosrentgen Sofya Rusova and a the Communist party’s municipal deputy Oleg Mitrofanov took part in the inspection.

A large building market, which belongs to the “Slavyansky World” company, occupies nearly 62 hectares of land. “Eight years ago the head of the district gave this territory to the Leshilov brothers for agricultural purposes.  This allowed the “businessmen” [the Leshikov brothers] to pay 0.3 percent tax rate for a long time. They didn’t hurry to reissue the documents as in that case the tax rate would increase up to 1.5 percent. So, the budget of the district lost about 100 million roubles (about 2.27 million Euro) every year”, said Sergei Mitrokhin. He promised to make the prosecutor’s office charge the Leshikov brothers with tax evasion.

After the settlement was joined to Moscow the market got the status of an industrial-market object.

The first place which the inspection examined was the territory of the building waste dump. Oleg Mitrofanov said that the ground at the place is more than 4 meters higher than the soil as the dump is rammed tightly. The deputy showed a heap which consisted only of damp. “This is the famous dump, the garbage from Moscow and the Moscow Region has been brought here for years”. According to Mitrofanov, the authorities plan to construct a tube station near the dump , though there are no apartment blocks in the area.

After the dump the inspection examined the market. They received evidence that the constructions at the market were not capital. “The owners of the market want to pretend that they obey the law, which demands the constructions to be capital”, YABLOKO leader. He called the place a “Sobyanin village”.

Candidate for Moscow Mayor paid attention at the large amount of illegal immigrants, who were working at the market.  The inspection headed to the hostel where the immigrants live. Sofya Rusova showed the superstructures on the garages and explained that the immigrants lived there.

YABLOKO’s activists examined the park belt. Mitrofanov said it was a historic place: once there was Saltichikha‘s manor and later a famous poet Fedor Tutchev lived there. There are two pond in the area, which are being polluted with the market’s waste.

After the inspection Mitrokhin had a meeting with the residents. “After what I’ve seen here I guarantee that I will apply to all the authorities to stop this lawlessness. It’s outrageous that Sobyanin said that the market was closed.  It’s very typical of our authorities. There is the law, which says, that such markets should be closed, and we can see that Sobyanin didn’t only lie, but also broke the federal law”, said Sergei Mitrokhin.