Cherkizovsky Market


On 29 June 2009 the market was finally shut down by Russia’s consumer watchdog Rospotrebnadzor due to 464 alleged violations of fire safety regulations and after earlier raids had unearthed 6,000 containers of counterfeit goods. Though having been anticipated for some time (1), this lockdown took many of the 100,000 migrant workers, who suddenly found themselves locked out with no access to their trading stock, by surprise. Stallholders and suitcase traders protested for days outside the locked market gates. A group of Vietnamese market workers trying to block a nearby highway were arrested and given deportation orders (2).

Immediate crisis talks between Chinese officials and the Russian government about the implications of the closure for the 60,000 strong Chinese community involved in the market lead to arrangements for traders to withdraw their stock from the market at regulated times. In a step forward, Russia and China expressed their mutual interest in establishing a standardised, transparent and convenient trade environment. In order to achieve sustained and sound development of bilateral trade, both parties agreed that it would be essential to tackle the problem of ‘grey customs clearance’ as it had been practiced at Cherkizovsky market (3). Work to bring the market stuctures down began in September 2009 and the RGUFK is keen to get its territory back. On 20 October 2009 Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov signed a decree on a revised listing of Moscow’s markets that no longer includes Cherkizovsky Market. On that day, Cherkizovsky Market officially ceased to exist.




(1) A number of international media have reported that growing alienation between former close allies Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and the oligarch Telman Ismailov which built up during June 2009 may have contributed to the market’s sudden closure. See "Oligarch pays for party that enraged Putin," The Independent, 16 July 2009, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/oligarch-pays-for-party-that-enraged-putin-1748289.html or "Vladimir Putin 'furious' over flaunting oligarch Telman Ismailov," Sunday Times, 28 June 2009, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6591398.ece
(2) "Notorious Moscow market unlikely to reopen – watchdog," RIA novosti, 14 July 2009, http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090714/155523059.html
(3) "Cherkizovsky Market closure heralds transformation of trade," China Daily, 6 August 2009, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2009-08/06/content_8533540.htm

 




Studies