Russia may or may not be feeding its illegal food imports to animals

Despite reports to the contrary, Russia's Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance says it is not reviewing the possibility of converting confiscated sanctioned food into animal feed.

According to the agency's spokesperson, Yulia Melano, meat and diary products—previously said to rerouted to farms as animal feed—must be burned, in order to avoid biological risks. Officials will deploy several methods for destroyed seized goods, both at the border and at special factories inside Russia.

Earlier today, Alexei Alexeenko, a spokesman for Russia’s Ministry of Agriculture, announced that certain types of sanctioned food products illegally imported into Russia will be used as animal feed, if discovered and confiscated. The expanded crackdown, which is now in question, is the initiative of Minister of Agriculture Alexander Tkachev, who apparently won Vladimir Putin’s support late last month, when a law passed mandating the destruction of all boycotted foreign foods.

• The EU currently has sanctions in place against Russia for the annexation of Crimea and Moscow's participation in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. In retaliation for the extension of EU sanctions, Russia also extended its embargo on a number of goods from the EU, mostly food products.
• In June, the EU extended its sanctions regime to January 2016. In return, Russian extended its embargo for another year.