The Christian Science Monitor quotes Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center Nonresident Senior Fellow Ariel Cohen on Russia’s decision to add more products to its forbidden import list:
“Lichtenstein isn’t exporting anything other than the banking services. This is a Russian bureaucratic kabuki theater, and it’s making the Kremlin look ridiculous,” says Ariel Cohen, Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council.
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“This brings very painful memories in Russia about manmade hunger of the 1920s and 1930s, when the Bolsheviks collectivized agriculture and forced everyone into collective farms, which resulted in a famine that killed over 5 million people,” explains Mr. Cohen. “So, Russians are very sensitive to the destruction of food.”