Russia Is Destroying Nutella, Fancy Cheese, and Other Western Foods

To remind enemies in the West that Russia is literally the place their delicious, but completely “illegal” Camembert, Nutella, and Mediterranean olives go to die, Vladimir Putin has unveiled a harsh decree: All Western food his goons find will now be destroyed, apparently by flame when possible.

Footage so far involves a lot of bulldozing, suggesting incinerators may be in short supply. Here’s video of what RT — most days of the year, Moscow’s propaganda arm — has taken to calling a “fromagicide”:

It’s a proud moment for Putin regardless. One reporter got invited to stand disconcertingly close to an active bulldozer and pretend to be excited:

It supposedly took an hour to crush around ten metric tons of bright orange-wrapped cheese by dumping it in a wasteland and slowly plowing it over countless times. Boxes arrived from Ukraine unmarked, but authorities at the food-safety agency, Rosselkhoznadzor, feel pretty strongly that it’s “possible” the cheese was produced in one of the countries that fall under the sanctions. (Better safe than sorry.) In another part of the country, five truckloads of definitely-not-Russian tomatoes and stone fruit got smashed with a tractor as well. The plan for the gourmet cheese is just to bury it in the ground.

So far, nearly 300,000 Russians have signed a Change.org petition pleading that the seized food be donated to anybody — orphanages run by pro-Russia separatists groups in Ukraine, if need be.

Agents at Rosselkhoznadzor warn that any wise guys who opt to “destroy” food by crushing it with their teeth and mercilessly dissolving it with stomach acid will face criminal charges.

US unsuccessfully targeted 

The US has long accused Iran of supplying the Houthis with missiles and other sophisticated weapons that they have used in those attacks.

The conflict in Yemen began in early 2015 when Houthi rebels -- a minority Shia group from the north of the country -- drove out the US-backed government and took over the capital, Sanaa.

The crisis quickly escalated into a multi-sided war, with neighboring Saudi Arabia leading a coalition of Gulf states against the Houthi rebels.

A report from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project last June found that more than 91,000 people have been killed in the conflict since 2015. It also found that the Saudi-led coalition and its allies had been responsible for more than 8,000 of the approximately 11,700 deaths connected to the direct targeting of civilians in the conflict.

Last year, in a rare moment of bipartisanship, both the House and Senate passed a resolution (SR7) that called on the Trump administration to end all hostilities in Yemen that weren't expressly authorized by the Congress. President Donald Trump vetoed the resolution in April and the support of the Saudi-led effort in Yemen continues.

The Trump administration has been insistent that is the President's job to enact US foreign policy and that any attempt to limit his authority is inappropriate. In his veto message in response to SR7, Trump argued that Congress was the one overstepping its bounds.

"This resolution is an unnecessary, dangerous attempt to weaken my constitutional authorities, endangering the lives of American citizens and brave service members, both today and in the future," Trump wrote.

Why would a commercial airliner be operating during this time?

Why would a commercial airliner be operating during this time?

Several planes had taken the exact same flight path as the Ukrainian airliner, up to an hour before it took off, aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas told CNN.

"So clearly the authorities thought it was safe," said the editor-in-chief of Airlineratings.com.

All of which raises the question -- why was this particular aircraft shot down so soon after taking off?

"To sort of say it was an accident doesn't really ring true," said Thomas. "Because other aircraft had been operating in exactly the same manner in the previous hour."

He added that the Ukrainian plane's transponder was switched on and flight radar was "tracking it until it was blown out of the sky at 8,000 feet.

"If it was a threat, that aircraft would be probably below the radar. And/or a stealth aircraft. So it just doesn't ring true (that it would be an accident)," said Thomas.

Ukrainian Airline had "no information about possible threats," says CEO

Ukrainian Airline had "no information about possible threats," says CEO

Rescue teams gather at the scene after a Ukrainian plane carrying 176 passengers crashed in Iran Wednesday.

The head of Ukraine International Airlines said that they had “no information about possible threats” to civilian aircraft on departure from either Kiev or Tehran airports, ahead of Wednesday's crash.

The airline's flight 752 was accidentally shot down by an Iranian anti-aircraft missile last week.

"At the time of the departure from Boryspil airport, no information about possible threats was available,” UIA CEO, Yevgenii Dyhkne, said at a press conference in Kiev Saturday.
"At the time of departure from Tehran airport, similarly, we didn’t have any information and there were no decisions by the responsible administrations given to us,” he added.

Iranian commander "wished he was dead" after missile downed Ukrainian jet

Iranian commander "wished he was dead" after missile downed Ukrainian jet

General Amir Ali Hajizadeh,in September. Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images

The commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force said Saturday he informed authorities on Wednesday that a missile had downed the Ukrainian passenger plane.

Brigadier-General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh said at a press conference in Tehran that after he told senior IRGC members about it, the general staff of the Armed Forces formed its own investigative team, from which he was excluded.

Hajizadeh partially blamed the US for the downing of the plane, saying Iran was already on high alert following the US’s warning that it could target 52 sites in Iran, and amid rising tensions with the country.

He said the plane was shot down by a short-range missile and was misidentified as a cruise missile by an air defense operator.

The operator identified the plane as a cruise missile but was unable to contact the central air defense command to confirm it. So he had to choose between shooting it down or not, and he choose to do it, Hajizadeh said. The operator had 10 seconds to make a decision. 

Hajizadeh accepted full responsibility for the incident and said once it became clear what had happened, he thought: “I wish I was dead.”

In its final communication, the doomed jet was told to turn

In its final communication, the doomed jet was told to turn

The final interactions between the doomed Ukraine International Airline flight 752 and the dispatch tower at Tehran airport involved instructions for the plane to turn, according to airline officials who declined to provide additional details.

“We have been reassured that [the aircraft] had the dialogue with the airport, with the dispatcher tower, until the last moment of the catastrophe," the airline’s CEO Yevgenii Dyhkne said Saturday at a press conference in Kiev.

"There were negotiations about the route, they had permission to turn, so all of this is now connected to the investigation and I’m sure it will be available in documents in time,” he added.

Asked what the final words of the pilot were, Dykhne said he couldn’t comment on the details but UIA Vice President Ihor Sosnovsky added that the final communication between the plane and the tower was a command from the tower to “take an altitude and turn.”

Sosnovsky later added: “I do not have the right to tell you what they’ve said. That’s dishonest and that’s not right to do because this is the investigation materials, I have no right to tell you what they’ve said."

German foreign minister: Iran must "deal with terrible catastrophe"

German foreign minister: Iran must "deal with terrible catastrophe"

Heiko Maas in May 2019. Odd Anderson/AFP/Getty Images

Germany’s foreign minister has called on Iran to “deal with this terrible catastrophe” after the general staff of Iran’s armed forces admitted Saturday that Iran had mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet on Wednesday, killing 176 people on board. 

“It is important that Iran has been clear about flight PS752. Tehran should take steps to deal with this terrible catastrophe so this cannot happen again,” Heiko Maas said today via Twitter. 

“Our thoughts are with the victims and the bereaved,” he added.

The Foreign Minister’s remarks come ahead of a meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Saturday, in which the two leaders are expected to discuss the ongoing crisis in the Middle East.