For isolated Russia, replacing key imports an uphill battle

Russia's efforts to replace imports of Western goods ranging from auto parts to cheese have had, at best, mixed results, analysts say [File: Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance via Reuters]

Russia was cheesed off, so it unleashed bulldozers to flatten plump packets of camembert and peaches imported from countries that had imposed economic penalties on Moscow.

That was August 2015, a year after Russia’s annexation of Crimea led to targeted Western sanctions against select companies and members of Moscow’s political and military elite. In response, President Vladimir Putin had banned the mass purchase of food from nations that had punished Moscow.