August 20, 2015 by Chris

Russia Busts Criminal Cheese Syndicate

News outlets are reporting today that the Russian government has arrested six individuals affiliated with a criminal ring attempting to import and sell 460 tons of contraband cheese “worth about 2 billion rubles, or nearly $30 million.” According to the reports, the smugglers had repackaged the cheese using the “fake labels of the world’s leading producers.”

Cheese smugglers? True to form, Putin’s government is no less a criminal element than the syndicates they bust. As a response to Western sanctions following the annexation of the Crimea, the Russian government imposed a bar on foods “including cheese, fruit, vegetables and vegetable oil-based products from the U.S., E.U., Australia and Norway.”

Our sympathies go out to the good people of Russia, who are trying to make do.