EU puts pressure on Russia – Switzerland delivers cheese
On the same day that attempts are being made in Brussels to prevent war in talks with Russia, the Federal Council is banking on better business relations.
–The Russian market doesn’t actually play a major role for Swiss cheese producers. Only a few percent of their exports go there.
Foto: Laurent Gillieron (Keystone)
Cheese from France and Italy, Spanish ham – 300 kilos of food end up in the incinerator in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg in December. The reason: since the summer of 2014, Russia has banned the import of many foods from the EU and North America. This is Moscow’s response to the economic sanctions the West imposed on Russia after it annexed Crimea and backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The video of the destruction of the illegally imported food, which the Yekaterinburg authorities uploaded to YouTube, is intended to make visible to everyone: Russia is still enforcing the sanctions. As soon as they were introduced, images of bulldozers flattening entire mountains of cheese caused a stir at home and abroad. Most recently, they were extended until the end of 2022 and now also include non-EU countries such as Liechtenstein or Iceland. Because these countries have also joined the Western sanctions against Russia.
