Angry Employees Burn Russian Warehouse After Police Take Workers For Army

Wildberries is sometimes called the Russian Amazon. Its warehouse outside St. Petersburg employs 1200, many who are citizens of former Soviet Central Asian republics like Azerbaijan and Tajikstan. 

This also makes it a fertile source of young men who can be involuntarily conscripted into the Russian army for service in Ukraine based on trumped up charges claiming false documents. After such a raid earlier today, angry workers burned down the warehouse. JL 

Nate Ostiller reports in the Kyiv Independent and DailyMail.com reports:

A huge fire spread through a warehouse in St. Petersburg on Jan. 13 belonging to one of Russia's biggest online stores, Wildberries. Arson or sabotage is suspected at the sprawling £27 million warehouse, where many staff are migrant workers from ex-Soviet Central Asian republics who military enlistment recruiters have been dragooning to the war, often under threat of being detained or sent back to their homelands for immigration violations. Police and the Russian National Guard have been carrying out raids at the warehouse over the past two days

A huge fire spread through a warehouse in St. Petersburg on Jan. 13 belonging to one of Russia's biggest online stores, Wildberries, affecting at least 70,000 square meters of the property, Russian media reported.

Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations said the fire had been contained and prevented from spreading further. It is unclear if the fire has been extinguished. No casualties were reported.

Unnamed sources close to the ministry told the Russian media outlet RBC that arson was one of the possible causes, and an investigation had begun into how the fire started. Other sources also said that the damages from the blaze could surpass 11 billion rubles ($125 million).

At the same time, the state-run media outlet TASS said that the fire was likely the result of defective wiring, adding that the fire alarm had been turned off because of "repeated false alarms."

Russian media reported that a mass fight had broken out by the warehouse on Jan. 10, allegedly between rival groups of immigrants. An Azeri citizen and Wildberries worker was taken to the hospital with stab wounds, and another unrelated man from Tajikistan was also injured.

Police raided the warehouse after the fight and checked the documents of workers, RBC reported.

Just two days earlier, two large fires broke out in Moscow Oblast, damaging factories and an apartment building.

There were no casualties in either fire, authorities said.

The ministry did not disclose the cause of the fires.

There have been several false fire alarms over recent days and staff initially suspected this to be the case today.

Arson or sabotage is suspected at the sprawling £27 million warehouse, where many staff are migrant workers from ex-Soviet Central Asian republics who military enlistment recruiters have been dragooning to the war, often under threat of being detained or sent back to their homelands for immigration violations.

Police and the Russian National Guard have been carrying out raids at the warehouse over the past two days, say reports.

As one raid took place, a water pipe burst in a suspected sabotage attack.

A 'massive fight' broke out at the warehouse between ethnic groups working there.

A 33-year-old citizen of Azerbaijan and a 35-year-old citizen of Tajikistan were taken to the hospital with stab wounds.

Fire ignited on racks holding household chemicals, located on the sixth level of the warehouse.

At the time, there was a shift change at the huge facility.