How Putin closed a supermarket in St. Petersburg

On Sunday, November 18, a rally gathered near the Narodny supermarket, which was closed due to unsanitary conditions. This was not the first time. About 200 people, mostly pensioners, came from all over the Leningrad region to achieve the opening of the store. The rally began with demands for the return of cheap potatoes, and ended with swearing at Putin and a proposal to begin collecting signatures for the resignation of the governor of St. Petersburg, Georgy Poltavchenko.

Photo: Valentina Romanova

Serious passions have been simmering around the St. Petersburg Narodny supermarket for months now. An economy class store, where pensioners from all over the region shopped, was once again closed by court. Pensioners and low-income residents are rallying at Narodny, collecting signatures in its defense and appealing to all authorities - from the district administration to Patriarch Kirill. Grandparents say that the closure of Narodny, where potatoes cost 1.99 rubles per kg and eggs 11.5 rubles per dozen, doomed them to starvation. Some believe that the store is being squeezed for the sake of certain Moscow investors who want to occupy the entire shopping complex. Others are sure that the cheap "Narodny" was ordered by competitors: the "O'KEY" and "Metro" chains. Still others say that Narodny will never be opened again, because Putin himself ordered it so. This story really couldn’t have happened without Putin.

Photo: Valentina Romanova

Putin believed the pigs

For some unknown reason, since April, supermarkets have been subject to a flurry of inspections by various supervisory authorities, and in the summer the youth movement “Piggy Against” joined the fight. Companions of “Nashi”, working on the basis of the fight against expired products, descended on “Narodny” with an inspection on June 26. Activists dressed in pig costumes at the supermarket, according to their complaints, were received unfriendly. According to the "piggy" version, about 30 guards allegedly shouted "beat the Russian pigs!" The youth were pushed out, and there were casualties. They even tried to open a criminal case against the “piggy” Andrei Bogomolov for disobeying the authorities. But then Seliger’s time came well.

Photo: Valentina Romanova

The head of the “pigs”, Evgenia Smorchkova, complained to Vladimir Putin at the forum and talked about how hard and with what losses the “pigs” are fighting with expired products. And away we go...

Photo: Valentina Romanova

We couldn’t resist Putin

Putin ordered to sort everything out and close the store. In the 13th police department, which dared to open a case against a Nashist, all claims against the “piggy” were urgently dropped. “Piggy” was even received by the Minister of Internal Affairs Vladimir Kolokoltsev, who was so fascinated by the activity of the anti-rotten meat fighters that he overwhelmed them with public work of checking stores.

Photo: Valentina Romanova

For Narodny, a few words from Putin resulted in a series of scandals that are still ongoing. The very next day after Smorchkova’s complaint, “Narodny” was surrounded by riot police. The prosecutor's office and the Federal Migration Service arrived with inspections. The supermarket was reminded that in July Rospotrebnadzor found traces of rodents in the warehouse, and fat flies and rotten fruit in the trading floors. It became clear that “Narodny” could not resist.

Photo: Valentina Romanova

The water in the taps suddenly turned out to be spoiled

On September 21, the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region fined the owners of Narodny for unsanitary conditions, and the store itself was closed. Then there was a series of courts, an attempt to protest the decision of the court and the bailiffs. The store, despite the court order, remained open. On October 10 it was closed for real. The Krasnogvardeisky District Court decided to close Narodny for poor water quality. Experts have found that the hot water in the supermarket's taps is unsanitary. With the approval of the city court, the food department of "Narodny" was closed for 60 days under Art. 6.3 Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation.

Photo: Valentina Romanova

The first victim is pensioner Chernov

All this time, Narodny customers fought for their favorite store. Grandparents called the radio, wrote to newspapers and stood on picket lines. Even at the October “Strategy-31”, demands to open “Narodny” were added to the political slogans. True, the St. Petersburg other Russians disowned these cries: the elderly activist Sergei Chernov stood up for the supermarket, for whom the fight for “Narodny” on Gostinka resulted in arrest and a 10,000 ruble fine.

Photo: Valentina Romanova

Social network named after Word of mouth

By late autumn, an initiative group had formed among angry customers and began collecting signatures in defense of the supermarket. The leader of the fighters for cheap products was the buyer Svetlana Vorobyova: she established a network of signature collectors, opened a group of “Narodny” supporters on the VKontakte website and began to rally restless citizens around her. Since 90 percent of active fighters are pensioners who do not even have a computer, the initiative group began collecting telephone numbers and addresses of signatories. Thus, Vorobyova had about three thousand contacts in her hands—that’s exactly how many signatures Narodny’s supporters had already collected. The rally is collected by calling the signatories. According to Svetlana, all supporters who have the strength to get there come to the rallies. On average, the Populists have 200 active customers who are ready to vote with their feet for the opening of their favorite store. The rest - mainly those who are well over 70 - sit at home and support the supermarket with their souls.

Photo: Valentina Romanova

God willing

On Sunday, 200 grandparents stood with homemade posters in defense of Narodny. Some of them even threatened to die of hunger if the store was not opened. Buyers are not afraid of what officials say about expired products. Most of the protesters have been shopping at Narodny for many years and do not remember being sold stale food. There are also those who do not rule out rotten meat on the shelves, but with meager pensions they see no other choice for themselves.

Oksana works in the same department store, in the manufactured goods department. For several years I fed my family at Narodny.

The pensioners are in a fighting mood. At the rally, they decided to storm the administration of the Krasnogvardeisky district with statements. Svetlana Vorobyova called on pensioners to personally go to officials with their passports and demand that their application be accepted. According to Sorokina, in the Krasnogvardeysky district, the district prosecutor's office and even in the presidential reception, they did not take the 3,000 signatures seriously, suspecting the initiative group of falsification.

Pensioners ask to shoot them: still better than going hungry

To be more effective, Vorobyova suggests not limiting ourselves to putting pressure on the prosecutor’s office and the administration. The woman turned to Metropolitan Vladimir of St. Petersburg and Ladoga, who, according to her, promised to convey the appeal of the “populists” to Patriarch Kirill. Now the initiative group is preparing an appeal with signatures. They also plan to transfer it to the presidential administration. However, pensioners do not believe in Putin’s help: they believe that it was he who, without understanding the history of the supermarket, doomed “Narodny” to death, and pensioners to hunger.

"Poltavchenko, listen to the people!"

They decided to execute Poltavchenko for Putin’s words

Desperate to find support from Putin, pensioners suddenly remembered an interesting law that was recently approved by the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg. Parliamentarians approved a new procedure for recalling the governor, according to which only a quarter of the votes of all registered voters are required to remove Georgy Poltavchenko. The buyers of Narodny went home, promising to think about a plan to remove the governor. They also promised to return to 21 Kosygina Ave. again. With new posters and new supporters.