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MOSCOW — The more than 6,000 animals in Russia’s largest zoo have been caught up in the worst fight between Russia and the West since the Cold War. A wide-ranging ban on Western food announced this week by the Kremlin has forced a sudden diet change for creatures that eat newly forbidden fruit.
The sanctions against meat, fish, fruits and vegetables from the U.S., the European Union and other Western countries were intended to strike a counterblow to nations that have hit Russia over its role in Ukraine’s roiling insurgency. But the measures will also have an impact on stomachs at the zoo.
The sea lions crack open Norwegian shellfish. The cranes peck at Latvian herring. The orangutans snack on Dutch bell peppers. Now the Moscow Zoo needs to find politically acceptable substitutes to satisfy finicky animal palates.
None of the animals eat such a specialized diet that they will starve, zoo spokesman Anna Kachurovskaya said, and the zoo has endured tough times before.
But the changes will drive up food prices for the cashstrapped zoo, she said.
The sea lions’ shellfish will have to come all the way from Iceland. Russia can provide the apples, but because of inefficient supply chains, Russian apples are more expensive than the usual Polish ones.