Russia declares war on hamburgers
After worms were found in a "McChicken" sandwich in a Moscow McDonald's, Russia's top health inspector Gennady Onischenko had a few sharp words for the international chain and for hamburgers in general:
He referred to the McChicken sandwich as "an excuse for food."Then, Onishchenko turned his ire at hamburgers.
"I would like to remind our fellow citizens that hamburgers, even without worms, are not a good choice of a meal for residents of Moscow and of Russia. This is not our cuisine."
But Onischenko isn't a disinterested gourmand:
Onishchenko has a history of giving medical advice and issuing warnings about imported food and drink that assist the Kremlin's political goals.Amid unprecedented anti-Putin protests last December, for example, Onishchenko warned Russians not to take to the streets lest they succumb to the winter weather and catch a cold.
In the past he has also ruled that Moldovan and Georgian wines were unfit for consumption and banned them, decimating one of the countriesâ?? most lucrative export industries at a time when Chisinau and Tbilisiâ??s relations with Russia had hit a low.
He has also taken aim at Ukrainian cheese and Belarusian milk at times when Moscow's relations with those countries were strained.
