The ban has impacted both the Russian population as well as the Western countries; while Russian consumers are unable to buy any imported cheese or meats and the food prices in Russia have rose by over 20%, the EU estimates that the sanctions are costing exporters $5.4 billion a year.
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Putin then decided to sign a decree ordering all confiscated western food “be destroyed in front of witnesses, and the act should be captured on video, to preclude corruption”, As the Guardian reported. But Russian producers say the government needs to do more to keep their businesses running. Earlier this week, in response to the widespread black-market Western products that have cropped up in spite of the ban, Putin ordered that Western foods be destroyed.
While the Kremlin?s ban on Western food has helped sped up inflation, it hasn?t affected public support for President Vladimir Putin amid Russia?s confrontation with the West over Ukraine.
And Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, who is usually a supporter of Putin, declared the move “extreme” and proposed sending the food to orphanages and to the separatist pro-Russian regions of eastern Ukraine.
Russian importers have found various loopholes to bypass the ban.
On Monday, 114 tons of pork that had been seized in April were destroyed, Yulia Melano, spokeswoman for Russia’s agriculture watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor, told RIA Novosti, without specifying how the meat had been disposed of. For the millions of Russians living below the poverty line, the bulldozing of so much food has been a devastating blow.
Opposition figure and former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov responded with bitter irony. For millions of Russians whose diets once relied on European imports, however, the sanctions have greatly affected daily life.
The decree about special economic measures to ensure the security of the Russian Federation came into force in Russia on August 6. “Why should we destroy food that could feed veterans, pensioners, the disabled, those with large families or those who have suffered from natural disasters?” said the appeal to the government.
Packs of sliced beef ham and cheese are placed on the ground as part of a display of illegally imported food falling under restrictions in the territory of Pulkovo airport in St. Petersburg, Russia, August 6, 2015.
Authorities in several regions have already got to work on what they said were illegal imports. Boxes of bacon have been incinerated.
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The Russian Orthodox Church did not look kindly upon the destruction of food, either. “In essence, this is a insane, stupid, vile idea”, he wrote. “To destroy food with this standard of living is a crime against one’s own nation!” wrote a backer of the petition who gave her name on the website as Natalya Afanasieva.
