Izvestia: "The Anti-Kiosk Campaign"
Employers appeal to Vladimir Putin to protect street kiosks in Russian regions
Over 2,000 of Moscow's 15,000 "non-stationary shops" – better known as street kiosks – have been demolished. Employers' associations are now appealing to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to preserve at least small pavilions in the regions.
"The regions have practically closed shop on their mobile retail programmes. We would like to ask you to reverse this trend because mobile retail is a modern and successful business," Sergei Borisov, head of the Opora Russia business association, told the prime minister.
Their request, however, does not at all mean that employers' unions object to streamlining the sector.
"We count on the new Moscow mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, to maintain some order. The available sites for kiosks were previously allocated without tenders, and prefectures distributed these sites as they pleased," Roman Zhigulsky, head of a not-for-profit partnership supporting small retailers, told Izvestia.
He believes that the reason the current municipal authorities so readily agreed to demolish existing kiosks is that the previous Moscow administration was using crooked schemes for allocating the sites – a problem of which the new Moscow government is perfectly aware.
Yet, according to owners, they should have phased out the kiosks demolishing and acted more gradually.
"Sure, those kiosks were obsolete. But there are better ways of communicating that to their owners. They were simply destroyed, razed by bulldozers," Borisov complained.
"Why aren't supermarkets being shut down, then? They sell rotten products much more often than small shops, for that matter," said Vladlen Maksimov of Opora Russia.
He said Europe on average offers 1,700 square metres of retail area per 1,000 residents. Russia offers barely over one-tenth of that amount.
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Government cuts social security contributions for small businesses
The reduction of social security contributions required of small businesses will save them 170 billion roubles annually, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with small and medium-sized businesses.
He said that the government has adopted a policy to support SMEs and individual entrepreneurs operating in industrial production and social services. Their required social security contributions will be cut from 26% to 18% for two years.
