How Russia is trashing smuggled Western food imports

The author of the petition stated that the food embargo has caused a significant rise in food prices, forcing pensioners, large families and other poorer groups to restrict their consumption.

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. Indeed, at the same time that he signed the decree auhtorising the food destruction, Putin also extended the sanctions for a year.

One truck driver carrying a cargo of suspicious tomatoes turned his vehicle around and made a getaway back into Belarus to avoid them being destroyed, food safety agency Rosselkhoznadzor said. It does not specify methods but says the process should be carried out “by any available means” and videotaped.

According to Rosselkhoznadzor, vegetables and fruits will be disposed at dumps, whereas meat and milk products will be disposed by burning as products of high biological risks.

The ban applies to beef, pork, fish, dairy products and other food from the EU, US, Australia and Canada.

Cheeseheads of the world, it’s time to mourn.

Russian Federation plans to reduce its dependence from Western hardware devices and software over the next few years, according to Sergey Chemezov, head of Rostec, Russia’s state corporation, which specialises in the development, production and export of hi-tech industrial products for civil and defence sectors.

Opposition figure and former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov responded with bitter irony. Products will be disposed at refuse destruction plants. “Some real triumph of humanism”, Kasyanov said on Twitter. But when reports surfaced this week that the government might ban condom imports, there was genuine alarm, including dire predictions of a spike in HIV/AIDS infections and unwanted pregnancies.

The Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance, the country’s main public health watchdog, said during a series of nighttime swoops officials had recovered Polish and Irish meat from businesses in the Moscow Region town of Reutov, Polish apples in Novosibirsk, and vegetable products in Tver.

A bulldozer destroys illegally imported cheese falling under restrictions in Belgorod region.

The Russian Orthodox Church did not look kindly upon the destruction of food, either.

Even some Kremlin allies are expressing shock at the idea of “food crematoria”, while one Russian Orthodox priest has denounced the campaign, which officially began on Thursday, as sinful.

“The primary goal is to stop the contraband…” The aim is to hurt western agricultural producers, and in some countries it has indeed had a major economic effect.

Meanwhile, a petition on Change.org has been started challenging the ban.

Solovyov hit the mark with this comment, for food occupies an nearly sacred place in Russian culture.