August 19:
The ongoing crisis in Ukraine has the potential to create significant dislocation in the global food market. "Russia represents the EU's second largest food export market at nearly $16 billion a year, a full 10% of the EU market," writes Kimberly Douglas in UN Dispatch. "This means two things: Russia must now find a way to fill the gap on their own shop shelves while producers in the EU must find a way to keep producers afloat as they lose one of their biggest markets."
Ukraine has banned fourteen Russian television and radio channels, Reuters reports. According to the news agency, the restrictions encompass Russian state broadcasters Russia Today and Life News, among others - all of whom the Ukrainian government has accused of "broadcasting propaganda of war and violence."
Russia plans to deploy battle robots to defend its missile sites by the end of the decade, a Defense Ministry official has said. The Moscow Times reports Defense Ministry spokesman Dmitry Andreyev as saying that testing of "remote control firing systems" designed to protect Russia’s strategic arsenal is now underway, and slated for completion by year's end. The machines reportedly weigh 900 kilograms, will be equipped with a large-caliber machine gun, and can engage in up to 10 hours of combat.
August 20:
RIA Novosti reports that the Kremlin's recent ban on foodstuffs from Europe is having an adverse effect on food prices within Russia. Already, the price of frozen fish in Moscow has risen by some 6 percent, the price of milk by 5.3 percent, and the cost of cheese by 4.4 percent. Russia's regions are also being affected, with the cost of fish 40 percent higher in the Primorye region than it was prior to the passage of the August 7th ban.
August 21:
Russian lawmakers have set their sights on the country's pro-Ukraine artists. The Moscow Times reportsthat members of Russia's Communist Party have launched an online petition to ban performances by artists who back the government of Petro Poroshenko in Kyiv. The boycott, a statement on the party's website says, is designed to force those artists sympathetic to the Ukrainian position to "feel the lack of support for their position in Russian society."
The Washington Times reports that a Russian humanitarian convoy has crossed into Ukraine, prompting Kyiv to accuse Moscow of a "direct invasion" of its territory. The Kremlin, however, denies the charges - and has warned the Ukrainian government against interfering, at the risk of prompting a wider war. "Those who are ready to continue sacrificing human lives to their own ambitions and geopolitical designs and who are rudely trampling on the norms and principles of international humanitarian law will assume complete responsibility for the possible consequences of provocations against the humanitarian relief convoy," the Russian Foreign Ministry has warned in an official statement.
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