Kremlin flags tit-for-tat food import restrictions as boost for domestic agriculture and chance for Russians to eat home-grown produce
The
lives of many Russians are beginning to change, as a combination of
western sanctions over Ukraine, a ban on some food imports and falling
oil prices weigh on an already weakened economy. More Russians are
putting off expensive purchases, adapting travel plans and changing
grocery stores. Photograph: Maxim Shemetov/Reuters
Trade is not usually brisk at Ala
Smirnova’s corner shop sitting among apartment blocks in a suburb of
north Moscow. It is mainly seen as a late-night, last resort for locals
who have run out of essentials such as soap, beer or bread. That changed
this week as word went round that the thinly stocked little store
contained a trove of some of the last affordable grechka, or buckwheat, left in town...
