Parmesan of patriots AT 27, Oleg Sirota was living the Russian dream. He had an information technology company with 30 employees, an apartment in Moscow, a Toyota and a Mercedes. Yet he was tormented by an unfulfilled childhood ambition: “All that time, I was dreaming of farming, dreaming of milk, of cows and of cheese.” He thought about starting a creamery, but saw no way to compete with European imports. Besides, he told himself, corruption would make securing land a nightmare.
Then Russia annexed Crimea, and everything changed. The West imposed sanctions. Vladimir Putin retaliated by banning farm imports from the European Union. Mr Sirota saw an opening. He sold his business and moved to the countryside, 60km outside Moscow. He took out loans from family and friends. He found a partner online, a Russian working at a creamery in Germany. He hired two refugees from Makeevka, a town near the front line in eastern Ukraine. In August 2015, in a field outside the village of Dubrovskoe, Mr Sirota opened “Russkiy Parmesan”.
Mr Sirota (pictured) hopes to help restore Russia’s self-sufficiency, which (like Mr…
The Economist: Europe
