Russia destroys tonnes of foreign food imports
Russia has bulldozed a pile of Western-produced cheese and tonnes of other foodstuffs imported in violation of sanctions.
The country has also steamrollered fruit and
burnt a huge pile of bacon 
The petition says that food sanctions have led to higher prices and shortages that are causing real hardship.
Food price inflation is running at around 20%.
Former prime minister, Mikhail Kasyanov, said that 20 million Russian citizens were below the poverty line, commenting that destroying food products was "some real triumph of humanism".
The EU is providing aid for European exporters of dairy produce, fruit and vegetables to ease the impact of the Russian ban on those goods.
There have been daily road blockades by French farmers - and on Thursday similar protests erupted in Belgium. They want higher prices for their produce, saying they are struggling to stay in business.
Russian government plans for mass destruction of banned Western food imports have provoked outrage in a country where poverty rates are soaring and memories remain of famine during Soviet times.
Even some Kremlin allies are expressing shock at the idea of "food crematoria" while one orthodox priest has denounced the campaign, which officially began on Thursday, as insane and sinful. However, the authorities are determined to press on with destroying illegal imports they consider "a security threat".
Russian TV showed a small mountain of illegally imported European cheese being bulldozed on Thursday while even before the official start,
zealous workers threw boxes of European bacon into an incinerator.
How much food has evaded the embargo is unclear, but considerable quantities appear to have slipped through the net by various routes, including via Belarus, arriving with forged certificates.
Officials say the embargo will encourage Russian producers to fill the gap. Now the authorities are also proposing to limit imports of X-ray machines and defibrillators for hospitals, which are already complaining of poor equipment.
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-33814362.
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/06/russian-food-crematoria-to-burn-cheese-bacon-as-russians-starve.html
