Why Western Food is BANNED in Russia

[Sarmatian]

In practice, Communism largely substituted stratification by money (in a Western capitalist sense) with stratification by pure power and position.

In Russian case there was no such substitution. Because in Russian society there was never stratification by money in the first place. In empire stratification was of feudal type, not capitalist. From that perspective USSR was an honest attempt to skip stratification by money and jump directly to pure meritocracy. It became apparent rather quickly it doesn't work if you're unwilling to kill all the crooks trying to get into positions of power.

[ioan assen]

Actually - as those Russian documentaries showed you, food standards in Russia are progressively lower than here and you keep on calling it Western food while there are no Western food standards. America, has poor standards compared to us and if you're complaining about your own food, it's probably because your own agencies are corrupt (Bulgaria does have a bit of a reputation in that department). Do I believe EU standards can be even stricter ? Absolutely. But you seem to look at Russia and the rest of the non-Western world with rose tinted glasses. I travel in Asia, and I can tell you one thing: those EU standards would do them some good. I never get sick here. Over there: I've had my bad case(s) of Delhi belly which I shan't discuss here.

You are right. I have been in NL and the food is absolutely great. No compromise. In Bulgaria, there is problem with certain food (if its very cheap), but if you know what to eat, its generally ok. I was in Kazahstan last year and the food was in considerably lower standard than the Bulgarian one.
As for communism: as far as I know the food has been generally OK, because we were quite closed and everything was natural and there were no innovations in the food industry etc. (like probably most of Europe). But unlike Europe we had like 3-4 types of salami etc. There was no variety of food, no interesting restaurants etc. This all came after the communism.

[Rumata]

Actually the western Fast food thrives in Russia. It's all over my city.

[щрбл]

I honestly don't believe that you are because I know plenty of Central and Eastern Europe (from the Czech Republic (or rather: Czechoslovakia) and Croatia (o rather: Yugoslavia)) who are about that age and communism for them - was something for them they fell down on their knees in thanks to God for when the day of liberation came. They felt in 1989 and 1990, the way we felt in 1945: liberated. It was a weight, a shroud being lifted of their shoulders. No more watching over your shoulders, no more secret police, no more not being able to trust your own family members. That's how terrible the system was. They were no pro's under that system other than subsidised housing and food (often of shit quality - the good stuff was reserved for the party bosses) and some benefits that you got which were merely bribery and an attempt of the government to dissuade the people from rising up (with the secret police being the other weapon) and when the money used to bribe the people dried up, the people rose up. So don't go tell us any funny stories here.

The cope is real in this thread.

Before 1989, Eastern Yurop had low quality of food. It dropped to nonexistent in the early 90s.

Today, there are regulations but nobody respects them because sanctions are rarely applied.
So you can get any quality you want, it's up to your budget and/or education.