80 Russians were recently poisoned as the result of a gas attack at a home-supply chain.

Officials with the Maksidom home-supply chain, which sells furnishings, home-repair materiasl and other domestic articles, said they had received recent threats that their sales would be disrupted around New Years, when Russians traditionally give holiday gifts.

Most efforts to undermine competitors' sales in Russia's sharp-elbowed free market take the form of negative advertising or libelous rumors. Business-related violence nonetheless remains a feature of the cutthroat capitalism that dominated Russia following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

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