Last week I attended a conference titled “Russia’s food market in 2015”; it was the first of a series of panels that took place in occasion of the 24th World Food Exhibition, a well-known event which brought to Moscow more than 1500 firms from over 70 countries.
At the discussion participated the Presidents of many Russian Commercial Unions in the food sector from one side and spokesmen of the Russian and Belarusian Ministries of Agriculture on the other. Issues such as the politics...
That many in the EU countries don’t support the sanctions’ escalation with Russia should not come as a surprise. Besides their evident lack of effectiveness in changing Russia’s behavior, economic backlashes are convincing people that they might not be the most appropriate instrument, especially under the light of the difficult economic conjuncture affecting Europe.
This is particularly true for Italy, where all the opposition parties –no matter from which side of the political...
... businesses, nor have they triggered protests or revolts. This may indicate that Putin opted for the solution that caused the least suffering from his own perspective, implying that he acted with absolute (authoritarian) pragmatism.
Behind the choice of banning food
Food is a replaceable good. Russia imported most of it from Western countries. Food is not linked to Putin’s inner circle’s interests. By bearing in mind these three considerations and by understanding the starting conditions ...
