Muscovites awoke Tuesday morning to find their metro stations in disarray after the city demolished dozens of small businesses it claimed lacked proper permits overnight.
The surprise move frustrated thousands of commuters and angered proprietors who are now out of work at a time when Russia's economy is facing long-term decline.
Diggers began ripping down bakeries, cafes, florists, salons and other boutique shops next to busy metro stations around midnight on Tuesday, The Moscow Times reported.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote in a statement posted to Russia's social networking site VK.com that the "illegal" structures were "dangerous for Muscovites." He said the sites upon which they once stood would now be "beautified."
But opposition politician and anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny wrote on his blog that it would have been "impossible to build all this without papers, permits and bribes" and called for corrupt officials to be punished.
Dramatic videos shared on social media show the panic and destruction Muscovites awoke to Tuesday morning. One of them, filmed before dawn and published on Facebook, shows people pleading with police to stop the demolition of an electronics shop.
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A video shared on Twitter shows a kiosk being demolished near the busy Chistye Prudy metro station.
Снос незаконных построек у станции метро Чистые пруды pic.twitter.com/ksqPN4NsRi— Alexander Roslyakov (@RoslyakovAP) February 9, 2016
Russians on Instagram posted photographs of the demolished structures using Russian-language hashtags for #moscow, #demolition and #apocalypse.
Фото опубликовано TATIANA RODIONOVA (@tatiana.rodionova) Фев 9 2016 в 2:21 PST
Фото опубликовано TATIANA RODIONOVA (@tatiana.rodionova) Фев 9 2016 в 12:08 PST
Фото опубликовано TATIANA RODIONOVA (@tatiana.rodionova) Фев 9 2016 в 3:58 PST
Чистые пруды pic.twitter.com/J95Mq00ri6— Feldman (@EvgenyFeldman) February 9, 2016
Арбатская pic.twitter.com/HqDw6vrKKP— Feldman (@EvgenyFeldman) February 9, 2016
Some Russians responded to the demolitions in typical fashion -- with dark humor.
"When you can't find your favorite kiosk at the metro," reads the text accompanying this GIF and take on the popular confused Travolta meme.
Когда не нашел любимый ларек у метро. #снос pic.twitter.com/osU8Ov19YX— Rus2Web (@Rus2Web) February 9, 2016
Others pointed out what they felt was government hypocrisy. This cartoon juxtaposed quotes from the speeches of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev about supporting small businesses with the image of a digger tearing down a salon and bakery.
https://t.co/QQNsMHii76 pic.twitter.com/h4QSEv6qKf— Sergey Elkin (@Sergey_Elkin) February 9, 2016
This map, created by Moslenta, shows the dozens of structures that were torn down during what the website is calling the "Night of Long Shovels." You can hover your cursor over each point to read details about each property (information is in Russian).
Moscow made the decision to demolish 104 properties in December but had not set a date for the demolitions, according to the the RIA Novosti news agency. More than half of those were destroyed on Tuesday, the agency said. The rest are scheduled to be torn down before Feb. 24.
According to The Moscow Times, Sobyanin has cracked down on street markets and destroyed some 22,000 kiosks since becoming Mayor of Moscow.