The Russian government has upheld its commitment to its one-year-old ban on Western food by steamrolling tonnes of contraband cheese and destroying fruit with tractors.
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The food safety agency said it would start destroying several hundred tonnes of contraband produce on Thursday that is has already seized.
The move comes a day after Russian authorities steamrollered tons of contraband cheese and destroyed fruit in a show of commitment to the ban.
But there was no doubt about the identity of Vladimir Solovyov, a usually pro-Kremlin television host, who tweeted: “I don’t understand how a country that lived through the disgusting hunger of the war and awful years after the Revolution can destroy food”.
Exemptions apply to some cured meats, cereal products, and alcohol, as well as products brought into the country by individuals for their own consumption.
“In general, Russians have quite a reverent attitude to food, to the work of those who produce it. A large part of the population sees the burning [and] destruction of benign products as blasphemous”, she said.
According to the decree, the food has to be destroyed in front of witness, along with photographic or video evidence that is has in fact been destroyed.
Smuggled food was scheduled to be incinerated in regions bordering ex-Soviet Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, the Rosselkhoznadzor agency said.
The new policy has faced serious criticism in Russian Federation, however, and over 280,000 people have signed a Change.org petition asking Putin to cancel the decree.
Farmers in France, Belgium and Germany have staged protests against falling prices, especially for milk and dairy products, following both the Russian ban and a sharp slowdown in the Chinese market.
In this photo taken on Tuesday, August 4, 2015, a group of activists, members of?Eat the Russian food? movement, check food at a Moscow food store in Moscow, Russia.
Some used the hashtag to share images of the dumping, while others chose to poke fun of it. One image that emerged was a mocked up picture of Russian President Vladimir Putin, bemusedly surveying a supermarket, instructing aides to “burn everything here”.
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.
The perceived absurdity of the food destruction campaign prompted an outpouring of black humor.
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“‘In Belgorod they’ve begun destroying 10 tonnes of cheese’ – the information businesses are reporting it like our troops are advancing on the Second Ukrainian Entrance”, opposition politician Alexei Navalny wrote on Twitter.
