Russia Bans US Beef, Ends Drug Trafficking Accord
January 30, 2013 MOSCOW — Since Vladimir Putin returned to the Kremlin as president last May, Russia has taken a series of anti-American steps. In recent months, his government has ended USAID programs in Russia and banned adoptions of Russian children by American parents.
Russia on Wednesday banned imports of American meat and pulled out
of an agreement with the U.S. on law enforcement and drug control.
The measures were widely seen as retaliation for a new American law
that bans alleged Russian human rights violators from receiving U.S.
visas or opening U.S. bank accounts.
The Russian ban on American meat imports goes into effect in two
weeks. They threaten about $500 million worth of U.S. exports of
beef and pork.
David Satter, a Russia specialist at the Washington-based Hudson
Institute, said in Moscow that the move was in reaction to the new
U.S. visa ban.
"This obviously is a form of retaliation. They want to hurt the
American economy," he said.
Russian health authorities said they are banning the American meat
because some American beef and pork contain ractopamine, a feed
additive that helps make meat leaner.
But Masha Lipman, a political analyst at the Carnegie Center in
Moscow, says that Russian health authorities often follow political
orders from the Kremlin.
"I think it is being driven by the domestic developments in Russia,
where anti-Americanism, anti-American propaganda has been used to
discredit those civic activists who are defiant of the regime," she
said.
The law enforcement accord dates back a decade. It allows U.S.
funding for joint U.S.-Russia action in combating drug trafficking,
international prostitution, money laundering, terrorism and computer
crime.
David Satter said, "This is one area of cooperation in which Russia
can potentially be useful to the West. Russian organized crime, in
particular, circles the world. And no one knows more about it than
the Russian Ministry of Interior."
U.S.-Russian cooperation is expected to continue in these areas. But
Masha Lipman believes the Kremlin’s new step will send a flashing
warning signal to Russian officials.
"Terminating cooperation in anti-drug activities is extremely
unreasonable. I think there is a universal understanding that no
country can actually do drug control independently of others," she
said.
Wednesday’s steps by Moscow come after the Obama administration
announced last Friday that it was pulling out of a joint working
group with Russia supporting civil society organizations.
Analysts fear that U.S.-Russia relations are falling into a Cold War
pattern of tit-for-tat.
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