Russians have been used for a year to seeing “cheese-like substance” rather than real cheddar on the supermarket shelves since President Putin declared an embargo on EU imports in retaliation for Western sanctions over Ukraine.
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Russian officers have steamrolled tonnes of cheese, fruit and greens, defying public outrage to start a controversial drive to destroy Western meals smuggled into the nation. “This idea is insane, stupid and vile”. Russia’s food safety agency said it destroyed around 180 tonnes of fruit including peaches, nectarines, cherries and grapes that crossed over the border from Belarus and were “falsely” marked as coming from Turkey. “If you can just eat these products, why destroy it?”
However, an official spokesman of Denis Manturov, Russia’s Minister of Industry and Trade, says that the Russian government will probably reject the introduction of any artificial barriers on the imports of Western devices into the country, as such measures would be contrary to WTO rules and may result in huge fines for Russia.
Despite tons of products being destroyed, residents were able to salvage some of the food. Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev advised a Cupboard assembly final month that “our state should have a proper to impose response restrictions” on the authorized legal responsibility for overseas belongings in Russian Federation.
But the government has been criticised for wasting food as sanctions have created an economic crisis and millions more Russians are now living in poverty.
Putin’s decree ordering the food to be destroyed entered into force on Thursday.
A petition to give the food to the poor, which has gained nearly 300,000 signatures, claims that sanctions on Western food imports have driven prices up 20%. Speaking to RIA Novosti he said the Kremlin was aware of the initiative, however he dismissed it due to the lack of verification that the signatures are those of Russian citizens or even genuine individuals. This decree was to come into effect on August 6.
However, the European Commission said this week that food exports have been “remarkably resilient” in the year since the Russian embargo was put in place.
“Any product without documents poses a security threat and should be destroyed”, said Andrei Panchenko, the head of the agricultural watchdog in the Belgorod region, as workers threw the boxes of bacon into a stove.
“It is better to confiscate benign products instead of liquidation, thus punishing those suppliers or customers who violate the government’s decisions, and then to transfer them to schools, orphanages, homes for the disabled”, said Shagaida.
Oysters and mussels were taken off the list, but certain provisions were added that completely excluded the import of any of cheeses or lactose-free products, except those vital for people suffering from lactose insufficiency and registered as medicinal and dietary products.
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Meanwhile, back on Wednesday Rosselkhoznadzor was not sure the banned food imports destruction campaign would kick off as scheduled.
