Russia marks anniversary of its ban on Western food by launching destruction

It was announced on July 29 that the Russian president had signed a decree on destroying from August 6 the imported foodstuffs covered by Russia’s embargo imposed as a countermeasure to western sanctions against Moscow over its stance on developments in neighboring Ukraine.

Russian Federation complains that some importers are circumventing the ban by illegally slapping on new labels that declare the meals was produced in neighbouring ex-Soviet nations.

The ban on commercial food imports is hurting both sides.

By the end of the day, a total of 319 tonnes of food were destroyed, including some meats from Italy which were burned in a garbage incinerator of Saint Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport. President Vladimir Putin’s order to destroy the food underlines the Kremlin’s determination to enforce the ban amid continuing tensions with Europe and the U.S. over the Ukrainian crisis.

“Why should we destroy food that could feed veterans, pensioners, the disabled, those with large families or those who have suffered from natural disasters?” asked the petition addressed to Putin and the government.

“Other kinds of food will also be destroyed by mixing it with earth to make it unusable”, Yuri Ladygin, the head of the customs service in the Russian Far East, said.

The initiative to take measures for destroying imported foods from Russia’s list of sanctioned products was put forward on July 24 by Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachyov at a meeting held by the Russian president with government members.

“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.

“The impossibility of the implementation of the embargo is fully due to the peculiarities of the supranational law and customs regulations in the framework of the Eurasian Union”, said Nigmatullin, explaining out that the weak link in the chain is Belarus. The EU has extended economic sanctions against Russian Federation until January 31 2016.

The seven Republican presidential candidates who did not qualify for the Fox News prime-time debate took to the stage Thursday evening to participate in the so-called “happy hour” debate.

Even some government allies are critical.

‘A reverent attitude to 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.

According to the Economic Development Ministry, retail trade turnover decreased by 8 percent in the first half of 2015, including by 7.7 percent in the food sector and by 8.3 percent in the non-food product group.

Authorities in several regions have already got to work on what they said were illegal imports.

However, according to Ilya Balakirev, the destruction of produce is, in general, a common practice in many developed countries.