MOSCOW, August 13. /TASS/. A group of lawmakers from the Russian Communist Party led by the party’s leader Gennady Zyuganov has submitted to the State Duma on Thursday a bill that proposes to confiscate sanctioned foodstuffs and goods and distribute them to the needy and also send them as humanitarian aid to other countries. The responsibility for the document was placed on the State Duma Economic Policy Committee headed by Anatoly Aksakov.
Aksakov has told TASS that he considers the bill to be unviable.
"With all the positive rhetoric, which may unfold around this law, if you see things in a realistic light, it turns out that it is unviable," he said. "If you begin to get to the heart of the matter, it turns out that there is no alternative, as these goods are without a source of origin, without proper certification, they are brought to the country with fake documents."
"They have either to be returned to those who supplied it illegally or to be destroyed," the parliamentarian said. He noted that the return of the sanctioned food would "stimulate the opportunity to get the goods across the border elsewhere, through other checkpoints and customs stations." "It seems that it’s hard to escape a conclusion that [these goods should be sent to] orphanages and residential care homes, but in the event of the fatal outcome (God forbid) or harm to health a question arises who will be held accountable."
Aksakov added that the bill could be considered in mid-October. "However, by that time the issue of the sanctioned goods will be brought to nought, since the suppliers who were running a risk will stop doing this, because the goods are destroyed. The issue will lose its topicality," he said.
Earlier on Thursday, Chairman of the State Duma Agriculture Committee Nikolay Pankov told TASS that the implementation of the Russian Communist Party’s initiative to distribute sanctioned food to the needy would only make illegal business stronger.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the destruction of sanctioned foreign food on July 29.