It seems the Russian customs authorities almost literally want to "go nuclear" on food sanctions:
RFE/RL's news desk has some more details on the Russian customs authorities' push to impose tougher punishments for breaking food sanctions:
Russian customs officials have drafted a bill that calls for prison sentences for those who violate the country's retaliatory sanctions on Western food imports.
The draft bill, published on August 20 by the Federal Customs Service, calls for banned foreign foods to be listed as "strategically imported" -- a label currently reserved for radioactive nuclear materials and poisons.
The legislation would stiffen penalties against those found guilty of smuggling banned food from the European Union, the United States, and other blacklisted countries.
It would allow authorities to file criminal charges, with prison terms of up to seven years, against individuals and companies found guilty of smuggling.
For organized groups smuggling large amounts of banned foods, the punishment would be up to 12 years in prison.
The Kremlin's food bans were imposed in 2014 in retaliation for Western sanctions that were imposed against Russia over Moscow's illegal annexation of Crimea and its support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
(AP, TASS, Interfax)
It seems German AOR legends Scorpions have declined to play in Crimea. I guess even they would have balked at playing Winds of Change there, given the current political climate:
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has been commenting on the August 24 meeting of the Ukrainian, French and German presidents that was announced as a Normandy group meeting without its fourth member -- Russia.
Lavrov emphasized that it is not going to be a meeting of the Normandy group, merely a trilateral meeting of Ukraine, France, and Germany.
“We are closely following the preparations for this meeting. Likewise, we will closely watch how it ends. We strongly believe that Kyiv needs an additional prod to persuade it that the arrangements and commitments made in Minsk on February 12 must be complied with,” said Lavrov.
The minister was then asked if he would call this trilateral meeting "disciplinary to a certain degree."
“I hope that this will be the case,” Lavrov answered.
Since the Ukraine crisis erupted last year, Poland has been one of Kyiv's staunchest supporters in the EU. I guess that matters not a jot to some soccer fans:
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that a consultation led by experts from Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France was successful.
"I can tell you that, a few minutes ago, expert negotiations in Berlin ended. We showed a common position with the EU about Ukraine’s implementation of the Minsk agreement. As far as I was informed, the negotiations were successful,” Poroshenko told journalists.
The experts were discussing various aspects of constitutional amendments in Ukraine.