Russia bans food imports in retaliation to sanctions

Russia bans food imports in retaliation for Western sanctions

Press quote (Wall Street Journal)
07 August 2014

The wide-ranging [import] ban on foodstuffs underscored Russia's dramatic retreat from the West under President Vladimir Putin this year. "It's symptomatic of a much deeper economic and psychological change going on, which is that Russia is being cut off," said Charles Grant, director of the London-based think tank Centre for European Reform. "The consequence of Putin's autarchic version of nationalism must be greater economic self-sufficiency," he said.