Russian raclette SOVIET news programmes were often recently filled with cheerful reports of ever-greater harvests, even as store shelves remained stubbornly empty. Modern Russia’s shops are full, but its news broadcasts recently have been dominated by ugly images of the destruction of food smuggled into Russia from behind the lines of “the enemy”—Europe, America and their allies.
Stone-faced presenters report victories on many fronts: hundreds of tonnes of peaches and tomatoes pulped by bulldozers, meat burned at supermarket doors, cheeses incinerated in a “Russian fondue”. A young reporter cheerfully chucks a head of cheese under the chains of a tractor. On August 6th, a Russian news agency reported, the country burned 300 tonnes of food.
All of this is being done with the blessing of Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin. Last year the government banned imports of food from countries which had imposed sanctions on Russia. Now food that slips through the embargo is being destroyed in the name of Russian sovereignty.
In a country which suffered famine in the 1930s, where hundreds of thousands starved to…
