Russians are about to lose access to virtually
all food imported from the West — which is to say, a significant
portion of the food that Russians consume. President Vladimir Putin ordered the ban on imports
to retaliate against Western countries that imposed economic sanctions
against Russia after the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over
eastern Ukraine. More than anything that has happened this year — more
than the annexation of Crimea, more than the latest crop of repressive
laws passed by the parliament and more than the West’s sanctions — the
food ban marks a turning point for Russia. It is now fully and truly a
country at war.
The ban on Western food
has already led to price hikes and runs on supermarkets. Food prices
were rising at a disturbingly high rate before the ban, and now they
will probably skyrocket; there may also be shortages. Russians older
than 30 have vivid recollections of such shortages, but the state
propaganda machine is working hard to make people associate the looming
hardships not with the memories of the failed Soviet economy but with
the struggles of World War II. They are to think of their losses as
heroic sacrifices made for the war effort. This propaganda, drawing on a
wealth of cinematic and literary narratives of the glorious
deprivations of wartime, may well prove successful with the vast
majority of Russians who support the current war effort, at least in the
short run.
A country at war invariably
declares war not only on the outside enemy — in this case, the West, as
represented by Ukraine — but also on the enemy within. In his landmark speech to parliament
in March announcing the annexation of Crimea, Putin made reference to a
“fifth column” of “national traitors” who are in cahoots with the West.
With the ban on imported foods, he has broken an uneasy, long-standing
truce with the group he views with the most suspicion: Russia’s cafe
society.
Read more: Food import ban means Russia is fully at war with the West - The Washington Post
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