So you know how Russia has imposed sanctions on the EU in response to the Western sanctions, right? For instance, the Russian government has prohibited the import of Parmesan cheese (among many, many other things) into Russia.
Of course, people in Russia still want to eat Parmesan. So Russian companies started making Parmesan of their own, which is obviously not real Parmesan. Since they can’t make it taste anything like the real thing, Russians make it look the part, even going as far as decorating the product with the colors of the Italian flag:
Pathetic, yes, but it’s one of a million tiny indignities the people of Russia are suffering as payment for their imperialistic hubris.
This is not the end of the story, though. Russians went to Expo Milano 2015 and. . . put their fake Parmesan proudly on display there. Italians are obviously unhappy about the whole thing and Russia looks totally idiotic once again.
Sometimes, when we tell ourselves a story many times, we end up believing it. Russians have been repeating like unhinged parrots that their fake goods (called “import substitutions” in Russia) are a source of pride, and eventually they forgot that not everybody is equally into this narrative.
Clarissa's Blog 
Okay, that shit looks naaasty.
What is it with Russians and cheese? Is it the only major European cuisine where cheese is irrelevant?
Is it just not a thing there are do they just suck at making it?
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I have never found any good cheese in Kyrgyzstan so I don’t think cheese was ever a thing for Russians.
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Is it just yellow cheese (roughly syr) that they’re not interested in or also soft cheese like tvorog as well?
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No they have tvorog here as well as a bunch of other sour milk products such as yoghurt, smetana, ayran, kiefer, and kumiss.
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Oh, I love tvorog. I need to make some.
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I’m very interested in the traditional Russian cuisine (which was considered the healthiest in the world), and there was never any mention of cheese in anything I read about it. I have no idea why.
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French culture has the reputation for cheese, Russian – no. Sausages and salo are more important, as far as I understand.
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Salo is Ukrainian not Russian. The Kyrgyz don’t eat it at all because pork fat is definitely not halal.
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Salo is Ukrainian. 🙂
The absence of cheese in Russian cuisine is weird given that there’s a lot of inventive milk products. Ryazhenka, prostokvasha – I’ve never seen any equivalents anywhere else.
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It was never part of the traditional Russian cuisine, so it’s quite irrelevant. However, they kind of suck at making their most traditional staples as well. The Crimeans suffer intensely because they now only get food from Russia and it’s horrible.
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For your general amusement and or more kindling for your endless bonfire of rage (take your pick!)
Some vile Putista rhapsodizes about Russian cheese and the great effects of sanctions:
http://www.unz.com/ishamir/russia-tit-for-tat/
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“They do not want an Empire for themselves”
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