Last week, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin signed the decree ordering the destruction of food which breaches sanctions. In other words, the Russian authorities started destroying food. It is easy to understand the situation when people burn drugs and contraband alcohol and cigarettes and even when bulldozers crush watches, mobile phones, and pirate video products. But liquidation of quality products is beyond people’s understanding. Such measures aroused a wave of protests and even the current regime supporters cannot make out the hidden idea of these actions.
During the first day of the decree validity, 300 tons of food were destroyed. These products did not include expensive parmesan or jamon. On the contrary, they destroyed 114 tons of pork, 40 tons of peaches and nectarines, 20 tons of the Latvian dairy cheese etc. Such measures are not appropriate even for developed countries with higher quality of life and less food problems. In civilized countries, contraband products are sent to social services and orphanages or are given to homeless and poor people. Thus, in Milan, police seized a large batch of black caviar and distributed it to homeless people.
