Those are about the only places outside of Russia where people on the street are more likely than not to have confidence in Russian president Vladimir Putin’s handling of foreign policy.
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Russian tv confirmed officers dumping truckloads of spherical brilliant orange cheeses on a patch of wasteland after which driving over them with a steamroller within the Belgorod area bordering Ukraine.
The food safety agency said it would start destroying several hundred tonnes of contraband produce on Thursday that is has already seized. Apart from being unable to buy imported cheese, fruit, meat and other products, Russians saw food prices skyrocket by 20% in the year to July, official data show.
Critics of the government say the confiscated food should be used to feed the poor, rather then destroyed.
The restrictions are expected to last until June next year at the earliest.
Russian importers have found various loopholes to bypass the ban. Peaches and tomatoes were also due to be crushed by tractors. She said that three trucks of nectarines might be destroyed in another region.
A supply within the meals security company warned that officers who opted to “destroy” gourmand delicacies by consuming them would face legal costs, the Izvestia day by day reported.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov admitted that food destruction “visually, perhaps, is not very pleasant” but asked media not to “exaggerate the problem” because the food is “pure contraband”. The methods for the destruction of food products is not specified but says the process should be carried out by “any means possible and videotaped”.
However the choice to destroy the meals has prompted a uncommon outburst of public ire because the financial disaster roiling the nation has pushed tens of millions of Russians into poverty and made it more durable for them to afford primary meals.
“This is no ordinary measure. This is a display of barbarity, a challenge to society, a refusal to see the ethical side, where it is most important”, Vedomosti a business-oriented daily newspaper wrote in a front-page editorial.
Meanwhile, opponents of the government’s decision to destroy banned Western food reportedly signed a petition calling for the decree to be revoked.
“I would give this food to Orthodox Christian communities, to children s and orphans homes… and to our friends in the Donetsk and Lugansk republics (separatist regions of eastern Ukraine)”, the Communist leader said in a television interview.
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The primary meals destruction got here as Russia’s ruble hit 70 to the euro for the primary time since March and 64.four towards the greenback for the primary time since February. A recent drop in crude prices has put the ruble under renewed pressure as the Russian economy is highly dependent on oil.
