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Discount store owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch opens in Warsaw

17.03.2025 17:00
According to the Warsaw edition of Gazeta Wyborcza, the newly opened "Moja Cena" discount chain, located on the outskirts of the Polish capital, is owned by Russian oligarch Sergey Schneider, who is subject to EU sanctions.
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Illustrative imagePhoto: Fikri Rasyid/Unsplash.com/CC0

The store, which resembles a warehouse, offers products such as Vietnamese tuna, Belarusian-made chips, and fish imported from China.

The "Moja Cena" discount store, which has no official website or social media presence, quietly opened in early March in a narrow street in the eastern part of Warsaw, in the area of Stara Miłosna, on Trakt Brzeski, as reported by Gazeta Wyborcza.

Polish daily Fakt, which visited the store, confirmed that the shelves feature products from Belarus, Uzbekistan, Hungary, and Egypt, with some labels written in Cyrillic.

Concerns over Torgervis PL's operations and ownership

The store belongs to Torgervis PL, a company that previously ran the Mere discount chain, which disappeared after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and a consumer boycott. The products are sold directly from pallets or cartons, and some items have short shelf lives.

Torgervis PL also operates stores in Siedlce (located in the east-central part of Poland) and Olszewo-Borki (a village located in the Masovian Voivodeship, near Ostrołęka in northeastern Poland).

Sergey Schneider, the Russian oligarch who owns shares in the company, has been subject to sanctions in Ukraine, raising concerns among authorities.

The Ministry of Development confirmed that the company's activities are under investigation by relevant agencies, and the Ministry of the Interior and Administration indicated that decisions regarding the sanctions list are made at the request of appropriate services.

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Source: Gazeta Wyborca/Fakt/X/@hytrekprosiecka/@Fakt_pl