Bear with me folks, as I’m currently writing to you through a liquid veil of salty tears: sometimes, when countries aren’t getting along, they impose trade sanctions on each other like import or export bans on certain foods. Which is sad for people in those countries who can’t get their favorite grub. But it’s also sad when tons of premium cheese gets bulldozed and/or incinerated, the victim of trade spats between Russia and Western nations.

In an incident dubbed “fromagicide” by Russian news source RT (video autoplays at that link), Russia is destroying tons of illegally-imported food that came from Western countries, reports NPR News.

It’s been a year since the country banned agricultural products from the West, a response to economic sanctions the U.S. and its European allies placed on Russia due to its efforts to influence neighboring Ukraine.

Along with Parmesan and Dutch cheese, fruits, vegetables, Spanish ham and other food has reportedly been run over by steamrollers and thrown into incinerators today, after President Vladimir Putin ordered all “contraband” foods to be destroyed. Though those products were banned, many were relabeled and smuggled into the country, NPR notes.

It’s not a popular move with many in Russia, with an online petition calling for the food to be given to the poor.

Watch the video below, if you can stand the thought of tons of fine cheese being bulldozed and buried in a landfill, never to please anyone’s palate with their smooth creaminess or fill a welcoming stomach with delight. Let’s just all hug our cheese a little closer tonight.

We Will Bury You: Russia Bulldozes Tons Of European Cheese, Other Banned Food [NPR]

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