Russia’s soap stand: a big lye?
It looks as if Russian authorities are trying to outperform one another in their campaign against all things western. They have burned Dutch flowers, bulldozed cheese of unknown origin and destroyed apples and carrots. Now, they have come for Western-brand detergents.
The Russian consumer safety watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, has ordered that stores remove from their shelves some products of major foreign companies, in- cluding Colgate-Palmolive, Procter & Gamble and Henkel. It claimed that the detergents, fabric softeners and other cleaning products contain toxic ingredients and pose health risks.
The brands are among the most popular in the Russian market. Some of the detergents affected by the order are imported, but others are actually produced in the foreign companies’ facilities in Russia — one of which, a Henkel plant in the Perm region, is being inspected by authorities.
Last year, Russian authorities started a wave of sanitary inspections targeting McDonald’s, checking more than 200 restaurants and closing some of them. The very first McDonald’s in Moscow was closed but later reopened.
In response to international sanctions after the annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula last year, Russia banned imports of food such as fruits, vegetables, fish or dairy products from western countries.
This month, authorities started to publicly burn and destroy Western food smuggled to Russia, prompting anger and unease among some in a country that has experienced famine in its recent history.
The move against the detergents has prompted outrage and sarcasm. Even pro-government anchor Vladimir Solovyov wrote on Twitter: “Who got disturbed by the foreign detergents !!!!!!! Should we go back to chlorine and laundry soap again? Is there a limit to this enthusiasm?”