Moscow Times September 8, 2000 EDITORIAL: No Safety For Moscow Prostitutes You've seen them. The hundreds of women that gather nightly on Moscow's busiest thoroughfares, in courtyards, alleyways and even the quietest nooks of the city's more peaceful neighborhoods. Cars skim past, headlights shining, and deals are quickly brokered. Like Chechen arrest quotas and random document checks, prostitution has become such an intrinsic element of the Moscow city tableau that it's easy to forget what a miserable business it is. Occasionally there are reminders. Take Thursday's early morning attack on a group of prostitutes gathered on the northern end of the Garden Ring Road. The grenade attack left 16 people injured, eight seriously enough to be hospitalized. Apart from one Muscovite, the victims were from the Tula and Ivanovo regions, Moldova and Ukraine. Bomb-tossing is an increasingly frequent gesture in this violent city; a quick fix for what irks you. The casual attitude is all the worse for being commercially driven. Moscow's bustling sex trade f 70,000 women reportedly work as prostitutes f has already reduced women to a dispensable commodity. Thursday's incident strips them of their humanity altogether. Police have not yet ruled out the latest motive du jour, Chechen-sponsored terrorism. But what seems far likelier is that the attack was a simple chess move in the city's ongoing turf warfare over the prostitution business. Moscow's sex trade is such a success that it has several spin-off enterprises as well f including roadside service for travelers heading in from Sheremetyevo Airport and a citywide network of old women who stand just down the road from the prostitutes, holding signs saying they will rent out their apartments for nightly trysts. It is a dirty business, like anywhere, that thrives on a steady supply of impoverished and desperate young women. And in Russia, it is given an extra boost by the country's absolute lack of protective legislation and a society that continues to put women low on the food chain. The majority of Moscow's prostitutes are reportedly from the regions and neighboring countries, driven to Russia's capital city out of aching poverty and then literally enslaved, earning next to nothing while being exposed every day to abuse and the very real dangers of life on the street. People can dismiss Thursday's attack as something that could never happen to them f as a less morally outrageous crime than last month's underpass bombing, for example f but that only skirts the terrible truth that Moscow's most miserable job just got worse. _______________________________________________ Crashlist resources: http://website.lineone.net/~resource_base To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/crashlist
