70 Kilograms of Black Market French Pâté Seized at Russian Border

By The Moscow Times

Aug. 21, 2014

A tourist's attempt to smuggle 70 kilograms of French pâtés into Russia was thwarted by food safety watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor at the Finnish border, a regional branch of the organization reported Thursday.

The tourist's vehicle, inspected at the Torfyanova checkpoint on the Finnish border, was filled with different varieties of these French delicacies, containing quail, pheasant, duck and wild boar meat, according Rosselkhoznadzor's regional branch for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region.

The authorities said they had launched administrative proceedings to return the plentiful pâtés to Finland.

In response to Western sanctions against Ukraine, Russia imposed a ban on meat, fish, dairy, fruit and vegetable imports from the EU, the U.S., Canada, Australia and Norway for one year.

Personal imports of some of these foods are limited to 5 kilograms.

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