A meat processing factory in St. Petersburg has taken Russia’s sanctions battle with the West into new territory with plans to launch a line of sausages under the name “sanctions,” news reports said Friday [February 6, 2015].
Moscow last year banned imports of a host of foods — including sausages — from Europe and the U.S. in retaliation against Western sanctions over Ukraine that are helping push Russia into a deep recession. The move was a blow for Russian gourmets — most high-quality products used to come from Europe.
“We wanted to attract buyers’ attention and show that despite sanctions life is continuing, and Russia is able to provide itself with a high-quality product,” entrepreneur Alexander Kashin, whose company Five Stars owns the factory, told news agency RBC.
Kashin was unable to assure his interviewer that all components used in the “sanctions” sausages were produced in Russia, but said that the Kronshtadtsky meat processing plant had begun using Russian supplies for nearly all main ingredients.
The factory’s website boasts that it uses machines from “the best European manufacturers.” Five Stars has already applied for the branding rights to the words “sanction” and “sanctions.”
Patent attorney Andrei Chernov told the Izvestia newspaper that there’s no legal reason for the trademark to be denied.
Kashin is not the first entrepreneur to dip into Russia’s conflict with the West in an attempt to drum up business. A number of companies and entrepreneurs applied last year for rights to the phrase “polite people,” a term used to describe the heavily armed, unidentified soldiers who occupied Crimea before the Russian annexation.
The Russian Defense Ministry’s official clothing supplier ultimately patented the phrase.
Inflation Soaring….
Meanwhile, The Russian government is discussing the introduction of price caps for essential food products, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich was quoted as saying Tuesday.
A slump in the ruble and a ban on the import of some Western food products last year have led to a surge in inflation, hitting consumers. Inflation is not seen easing in 2015 and will be at 12 percent by the end of the year, the Economic Development Ministry forecasts.
News agencies RIA Novosti and Interfax quoted Dvorkovich as saying that there would be possible restrictions on raising retail prices for socially significant products. “We will see how to efficiently place [restrictions] into law,” he said.
The government may also give the state competition watchdog more power in enforcing existing retail market regulations, RIA reported Dvorkovich as saying. It did not provide further details.
Dvorkovich’s comments follow a series of store inspections by the Prosecutor General’s Office across Russia aimed at exposing unjustified price increases. However, top grocery chains have said increases in their shelf prices have lagged the broader inflation rate. Source: The Moscow Times.
