Putin Puts Russians Back on Soviet Diet

On Putin's orders, the Russian government today banned the import of certain kinds of European, U.S., Canadian and Australian food for a year in response to those countries' Ukraine-related sanctions against Russia. Unlike Western governments, Putin is not concerned about minimizing the effect of sanctions on his own country's businesses. The measures will hurt Russian retailers and importers as much as Western exporters. To ordinary Russians, the measures show how serious Putin is about returning to Soviet times, when all grocery stores were called simply "Food" and sold almost exclusively local produce -- when they had anything to sell.