Holier than thou

They're a busy lot over at Rospotrebnadzor, Russia's Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare. And thank goodness for that, because they've discovered what can only be described as a massive conspiracy between rival cleaning product producers to put themselves out of business in Russia - by flooding the market with "household chemicals and detergents that do not meet the regulatory requirements for safety." Phew, because God only knows what could have happened to my next load of washing.

Of course, as the removal from supermarket shelves begins, they haven't actually said what toxic substances are lurking in these products that are made by companies as diverse as Colgate-Palmolive, Henkel Rus, Neva Cosmetics, JSC CAP-Contract GmBH, Procter & Gamble, Werner & Mertz GmbH and The Clorox Company. Nor have they provided any theories on just how all these products - including dishwashing and clothes detergent - could suddenly simultaneously contain substances that breach "toxicological safety indicators."

Predictable path

This is the latest move by the Russian government to ramp up its battle with the EU, US and others in retaliation for sanctions imposed on it over its actions in Crimea and Ukraine. And it follows a well-worn and predictable path. During the conflict with Georgia back in 2008, Russia banned the import of Georgian wines claiming they contained heavy metals. In 2013, in a battle over gas prices, it banned the import of Lithuanian dairy products because they allegedly contained high levels of mould and yeast. It also banned Ukrainian chocolate because of arguments over the gas price. Then last year, with the sanctions in place against it, it banned EU pork claiming it was infected with swine flu.

My question is this: Russians do actually see this for what it is, so why not just call a spade a spade and stop making up excuses to ban products and actually just say - "your country has upset us and therefore we will penalize your companies in a tit-for-tat manner just as you are penalizing our companies." Why the public scare campaigns? But I can tell you, this one won't wash.

My husband went to the supermarket last night and witnessed a very heated exchange between a shopper and staff where she demanded they bring back the good stuff because she didn't want to put it into her washing machine, pointing to whatever brand was left on the shelf.

From a PR point of view, the destruction of food followed by the incineration of 50 or so live ducklings smuggled in from Ukraine (who "did not have any accompanying documents," according an official from the Russian food safety agency), is not a great move. And following it up by removing cleaning products just rubs salt into what will soon become a very dirty wound.

How to steal $60 million - and get away with it

In effect Russia is punishing its own people and patience will wear thin - especially when they simultaneously see gross miscarriages of justice perpetrated right before their eyes. And the gross miscarriage of justice I refer to is the release from prison of Yevgeniya Vasilyeva who stole about $60 million (53 million euros) in a scandal involving the sale of military property and got off very lightly for it.

At the time she was the lover of the former defense minister, Anatoly Serdyukov. His career was derailed by the scandal and she was sentenced to five years in jail but was let out this week after serving just four months.

But no one is exactly sure where she served this four months. In theory she was supposed to be in prison but she was spotted in a bank in an up-market central area of Moscow a couple of weeks ago, prompting journalists to ask authorities exactly where she was being held? First the officials said she was being held in a prison in a town called Vladimir, but the authorities there could neither confirm nor deny this. Moscow authorities said she couldn't be there because her sentence hadn't officially started, but they later confirmed she was in fact in Vladimir but that she did not want to speak to journalists. Strangely enough there was never any confusion over where Pussy Riot were being held.

Now you see her, now you don't

Her defense argues that her early release was justified as she had repaid about 80 percent of the money and because she had spent a couple of years under house arrest during the trial which started in late 2012. But during that time she seemed to be able to get out and about quite easily and indulge her new creative hobbies - art, poetry (some of which refers to the hairy hands of her then defence minister lover) and singing.

She even managed to produce a video about her ex-lovers slippers, starring herself in a setting that clearly isn't her apartment, nor does it look like anything I can think of that's even close to the center of Moscow. While some may argue her time in prison should have been spent with a good singing teacher, she apparently spent it with a psychologist who "tried to refocus [her] on family well-being" and to cure her of her "thirst for profit," according to the news agency Tass.

Well I hope they were successful in that because soon they'll be nothing left for her to spend her profits on and who knows what kind of psychological damage that could cause her.

Fiona Clark is an Australian journalist currently living in Russia. She started her career with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as a TV reporter in the mid-1980s. She has spent the past 10 years working on publications such as The Lancet and Australian Doctor and consumer health websites. This is her second stint in Moscow, having worked there from 1990-92. What was to be a two-year posting is still continuing.