MOSCOW: Russian authorities launched nationwide inspections of McDonald’s restaurants yesterday after shutting three wildly-popular Moscow locations on apparent government orders aimed at striking back against biting Western sanctions. It was the latest and arguably most resonant salvo in an escalating and economically-bruising trade war over a bloody conflict in Ukraine that has plunged East-West relations into what some have dubbed a “new Cold War”.
Russia has a long and varied history of using sudden food safety concerns as a political weapon against unfriendly states.
It has cited health grounds to ban Ukrainian products and halted imports of Georgian beverages earlier.
AFP
