Spats Over Sprats, Beef Over Burgers: A Guide to Russia's 'Food & Drink Wars'

When geopolitical disputes flare up, Moscow has a tendency to exert extreme caution over health and safety at home, particularly when it comes to the nation's eating and drinking habits.

Banning food and drink in a bid to bully dissenters abroad has become a Russian trademark.

Only today, the word coming out of the Kremlin is that EU fruit could be banned by the end of the week. Just as EU ministers consider tightening sanctions on Moscow.

It's crude, painful and rarely achieves the desired effect but that is not stopping Russia's latest food and drink war. Here are seven of Russia's culinary crusades from Vladimir Putin's time in the Kremlin.

1 Russia's beef with the United States over the Ukraine crisis is playing out in the fast-food sector. A regional consumer watchdog has proposed banning the McDonald's Cheeseburger Royale, Filet-o-Fish and chicken burger.

2 Back in 2013, when Russia and Ukraine were the best of frenemies, Kiev sought to build stronger ties with the European Union. Moscow responded to the disloyalty by declaring Ukrainian chocolate unwelcome in the Russian Federation.

3 When the former Soviet republic Georgia flirted with NATO in 2006, Moscow suddenly slapped an embargo on the highly-regarded Georgian wine and water, citing dangerous pesticides. It cut Georgia's wine export revenues from $81.4m in 2005, to $29.2m in 2007.

4 Moldova's drive to boost ties with the EU coincided with a bad time for its main export earners, wines and spirits producers. Moldovan cognac and vodka were banned by Russia in September 2013, months before an historic EU association summit. Undeterred, the Moldovan parliament ratified the EU association accord in July.

5 Latvian sprats have frequently fallen foul of Russia's rigorous health and safety regulations. The most high profile spat took place in the mid-noughties, when the governments fought over the territorial borders between the two states. The sprat ban returned in January 2014, just after Latvia adopted the euro.

6 As the Russia-Ukraine crisis has escalated, Poland has been one of the most hawkish European voices rallying for strict sanctions against Moscow. Russia retaliated in the way it knows best, by banning Polish pork products.

7 Russia milked Belarus dry in 2009 after the former Soviet state opened talks with the EU on selling milk to Western Europe. Russia promptly banned all Belarusian dairy products in an episode popularly referred to as the Milk War.