The Polish Ministry of the Interior has sanctioned the owners of the Mere chain of budget stores for indirectly supporting Russian aggression in Ukraine. Mere stores are also operating in Latvia successfully and their owners are opening new stores, Latvian Radio reports on 9 May.
There are currently 11 Mere stores in Latvia – in Rīga, Ogre, Tukums and Liepāja, where one of the newest stores has opened. These low-price stores in Latvia were opened four years ago in March and are managed by Latprodukti.
The latest financial figures for last year are not available, but in 2023 Latprodukti had a turnover of EUR 20.6 million, an 89% increase on 2022, while the company’s profits increased severalfold to more than EUR 700,000. So it has been very successful.
Russian citizen Sergey Schneider owns 61% of Latprodukti. The company is also co-owned by his brother Andrey Schneider (12%) and several other persons.
While at the beginning these shops stocked mostly Russian and Belarusian products, today they are in a minority, but still present.
Latvian Radio found out that one of the “Mere” shops in Rīga stocks Russian rubber slippers and salmon roe, black caviar, and Belarusian syrups, corn puffs, breakfast cereals, board games and other goods.
Ainars Brūvelis, member of the board of Lursoft, said that the risks are several, both legal and moral. On the positive side, the company has managed to go from zero to a turnover of more than €20 million and a substantial profit in a few years, and has paid €4 million to the state budget. However, we must be aware that this is a purely Russian company and that the profits that are taken out go to Russian citizens and back into their wallets. There are also concerns about the origin of the goods.
“It may be that these goods are… also ‘grains of blood’. Russia is still occupying a large part of Ukrainian land. It is possible that there are some products there that use materials stolen from Ukraine, so from a moral point of view, this is a very negative moment,” said Bruvelis.
Equally important is the legal aspect, i.e. deciding to what extent cooperation with Poland or Russia is important for us.
“If, say, someone supplies local products to this chain of shops, they have to assess whether they then lose the opportunity to offer the same products in Poland because they are cooperating with a person included in the Polish sanctions package,” said the Lursoft representative.
Diāna Eglīte, spokesperson for the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that they would take a closer look at the Polish decision and its reasoning and, if necessary, decide on appropriate action.
She added that proposals to prepare sanctions against Russian war supporters are made on a regular and continuous basis. Discussions have just started among European Union (EU) Member States on the 17th round of sanctions.
Eglīte pointed out that Latvia, together with other EU Member States, imposes sanctions against Russia, which is the most effective way of implementing sanctions, as they are binding on all EU Member States.
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