FOREIGN: RUSSIA'S UNDERWEAR TRADE BAN - MORAL OR POLITICAL?

Panty riot: Eurasian women protesting the lingerie ban. 

Last week, Russia with her economic allies under the "Eurasian Union" trade bloc announced a bizarre trade directive banning importation of lacey lingerie.

The ban, if it goes into effect on July 1 as stated, will outlaw any underwear made of non-natural material that does not meet a 6 percent absorption threshold, that is, underwear containing less than 6 percent of cotton will be banned from being imported, made, or sold in Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. However, there has been tremendous consumer outcry against the ban. Women and men alike rallied in protest to the law. Several photos comparing the modern sexy lingerie and archaic Soviet types are been circulated on social networks in attempt to garner support against the changes.

Russia sells more than $4 billion worth of underwear within her borders annually, according to the country's textile business union, of which 80 percent are foreign made and imported. Experts said that the ban if not revised with force the dumping of about 90 percent of Russia's stock.

MY COMMENT:

So, what motivated this trade ban? On the surface it seems like a fight based on moral grounds (not like Russia really care about dress code, or should I say underwear code, anyway), but on a closer look, this is a step aimed at paving the way towards the rise of a Soviet-like empire for Russia and it's old Soviet states.

Eurasian Union: Present and Future

The Eurasian Economic Union (EAU) is a proposed economic union of post-Soviet states first put forward by the President of Kazakhstan in 1994 as a concept, but was brought to attention in 2011 by Vladimir Putin. Although Vladimir Putin stated that the union would be built on the "best values of Soviet Union", critics, however, view the move as a drive to restore the former Soviet empire, perhaps the rise of another Cold War era. The union, if it achieves the integration of the post-Soviet colonies, would put the politics of Europe and Middle East into a very tensed mode. As China, a very powerful and important ally of Russia as well as its Communist comrade, is already pushing its economic and political relations in the region, it will bring about the same political ideology that existed in Europe during the Socialist-Communist vs Capitalist era.

This bizarre underwear regulation is a political move to unite the economies of the post-Soviet states and cut down western influence in the region. Meanwhile, the Eurasian Economic Commission has declined to comment on the underwear ban. Many critics see the ban as yet another example of the misguided economic policies that have become a trademark of many post-Soviet countries.