Russia's War Against Ukraine
OP-ED
Maxim Trudolyubov: St. Petersburg to Moscow, and back
Drivers of the Russian humanitarian convoy wait at a checkpoint at the Ukrainian border some 30 km outside the town of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky in the Rostov region, on August 17, 2014. The Red Cross on August 17 said its officials had arrived at an area where a mammoth Russian aid convoy is parked close to Ukraine's border but were still waiting to start official inspections. \"Our representatives are there with the convoy. They are not yet inspecting the contents but are just looking at the convoy,\" Victoria Zotikova, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Moscow told AFP. AFP PHOTO / DMITRY SEREBRYAKOV
MOSCOW — When the Kremlin announced a ban this month on food imports from the United States and the European Union, Russian social networks exploded with jokes about the empty store shelves in the Soviet Union. But the shelves won’t be empty; they’ll simply be stocked with mostly basic and bland items, a reflection of government policies that are pulling the country back to the past and highlighting its inner tensions.
