Moscow city officials declare war on shawarma and ice cream

The Moscow Department of Trade and Services is going to war with street kiosks selling food, vowing to remove every last one, according to Alexey Nemeryuk, who heads the department.

Nemeryuk cited repeated inspections by health and safety workers, who found that kiosk owners have refused “to bear even the slightest costs of maintaining proper sanitation standards.”

He also promised that street kiosks throughout Moscow selling ice cream will soon disappear, as well.

“Individual kiosks, the ones whose leases haven't yet expired, are drawing down their operations right now. We're ridding the streets of all shawarma. It's going to disappear entirely,” Nemeryuk said.

Moscow city officials have tried several times to end the shawarma kiosk industry. In 2006, the Moscow government instituted new health and safety regulations. In 2007, health inspectors vowed to end the sale of shawarma by street kiosks. In 2010, the city's new mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, ordered officials to start tearing down kiosks in a new campaign against non-stationary street trade.