On July 29, 2015, Russian President Valdimir Putin signed Decree No. 391 (see also Government Resolution No. 774, July 31, 2015), providing for the procedures for the destruction of embargoed products illegally imported into Russia, with destruction commencing on August 6, 2015. In June, pursuant to Decree No. 320, Putin had extended its embargo on foods imported from Western countries until August 6, 2016. The embargo had previously begun on August 6, 2014, with Putin’s signature to Decree No. 560 (see also Resolution No. 778, August 7, 2014).

The list of countries initially effected by the ban (arising from Decree No. 560), included the United States, European Union, Canada, Australia, and Norway. On August 14, 2015, the list of countries whose agricultural and food products are banned from importation was extended to apply to Albania, Montenegro, Iceland, and Liechtenstein, as well as Ukraine depending on whether an economic agreement with Russia came into force by January 1, 2016. (See amendment to Resolution No. 778.) Notably, the list did not include Georgia or Moldova.

Agricultural products initially banned included: beef, pork, sausages, poultry, fruits and nuts, vegetables, fish, seafood, cheese, milk and other products containing milk or based on vegetable oils. (See Decree No. 560.) The list of banned products was amended on June 25, 2015 (Government Resolution 625) shortly after the extension of the ban, to exclude certain “fry of Atlantic salmon,” “fry of trout,” oysters and muscles, specialized lactose-free milk and specialized lactose-free dairy products for therapeutic dietary nutrition and preventative dietary nutrition, and seed potatoes, seed onion, hybrid sweetcorn seed, and seed peas. The effect of the exclusion on such lactose-free and therapeutic products is to tighten the ban on dairy products.

The effect of the ban and its implementation, has been to destroy banned goods upon seizure, instead of returning it to the country of origin. August 6th was marked by wide-spread news reports of the destruction of tons of food products along Russia’s boarder, including the Belgorod region, Orenburg in the south, and St. Petersburg in the north. In separate instances, 114 tons of pork, 73 tons of peaches, and 10 tons of cheese were reportedly destroyed. By August 20th, Russia’s food safety agency had reported the destruction of 606 tons of banned food. While many destructions occurred near the Russian border, there were reports of seizures of banned goods well within the country, as in the instance of European tomatoes discovered on a highway west of Moscow.

Moscow’s move to specify procedures for destroying food as of August 6th has reportedly been due in part to continued smuggling circumventing the ban. There were reports, for example, of banned cans of Danish ham continuing to appear in Moscow grocery stores. The new procedures specified in August require two (2) disinterested witnesses to be present during destruction, which must also be videoed. As in the circumstances of 114 tones of pork marked as being from Brazil, such food has been destroyed when “officials” from the non-banned country cannot confirm the authenticity of custom documents.

The ban arising from Putin’s recent decree does not apply to small amounts of Western food brought into the country for personal consumption; however, Russians have reportedly been prevented from bringing in large amounts banned goods into the country, including one man traveling with 1,000 pounds of cheese.