Moscow Doesn’t Like the Prespa Apples and it finds Ecuadorian Bananas Tastier than the Indian

If the pressure from Russia was not that obvious in the Macedonian case with the banned imports of apples from Prespa, the example of Ecuador was pretty straightforward. By skillfully manipulating the business sector, the pressure put on the Ecuadorian leadership hit success and it changed its mind on the US offer to exchange the old Soviet weaponry and hardware with new and more sophisticated weapons – with the announced blockade of the Russian import of bananas. These two examples, seemingly atypical in the traditional sense of a hybrid threat, clearly reflect the economic pressure of Russia on the smaller players on the global scene

Author: Matej Trojachanec

In the bustle of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it seems that the apples from the Prespa Region were the collateral damage of the Russian influence and pressure. The ban on Macedonian apples on the Russian market is not the sole example of the economic pressure exerted by Russia as a hybrid threat worldwide.

More than a year ago (December 2022), the Federal Department of Veterinary and Phytosanitary Control (Роселхознадзор) decided to ban the import of thousands of tons of Prespa apples on the pretext that the brown stink bug (halyomorpha halys) was found in one of the crates.

This bug is a well-known pest, explains the President of the Fruit Growers Association from Resen, Ljube Pampuleski for the Voice of America. The bug was present in the previous years as well, but that was never the reason for Russia to dam up the import. The EU ambassador to North Macedonia David Geer mentioned at the time that the incident with the apples from Prespa was just one of the ways for Russia to demonstrate its sway.

According to Levica (The Left) party, Moscow’s move was justifiable and a logical consequence of the events following the ”sanctions introduced by the anti-people’s government towards Russia”.

Russia also found flaws in Ecuadorian bananas but then changed its mind
Last week Ecuadorian bananas were also blocked by the Russian ramp. The move occurred after the US offered Ecuador to substitute its old Soviet weaponry and hardware with new sophisticated weapons worth approximately 200 million dollars. This decision was strongly condemned by Russia, which announced it will import bananas from India instead of from this South American country. In numbers, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), that represents 98 percent of the total banana imports in Russia which is 20 – 25 percent of the total exports of Ecuador.

Additional burdens to the industry were created by the unfavorable weather conditions caused by ENSO climate phenomenon, disrupting banana production in Ecuador. Known as “El Niño – Southern Oscillation”, this climate oscillation affects the cooling of surface waters of the ocean along the tropical west coast of South America.

The unfavorable weather conditions, including the atypical cold weather related to the La Niño phenomenon in Ecuador, as well as experiencing another strong tropical storm throughout the Caribbean additionally affected the quantity [bananas] available for exports, stated the report of FAO.

Russia, most probably, saw a perfect moment for exerting economic pressure on Ecuador just when the country was hit by weather disasters. And that’s what it did.

Soon after that, the Minister for Production, Foreign Trade, Investments and Fishery of Ecuador, Sonsoles Garcia announced on the social network Х (former Twitter):

Good news💪🏽🇪🇨 100% of Ecuadorian banana exports to Russia is operational!
The five companies that were suspended were authorized to resume trade.
Export continues and direct dialogue is maintained. We will continue working to guarantee fluid trade with Russia, an important destination for our agro-export offer.

A few days later, the President of Ecuador stated that the weaponry exchange will be canceled, allegedly because they learned that the old weapons would be donated to Ukraine.

If the pressure from Russia was not that obvious in the Macedonian case with the banned imports of apples from Prespa, the example with Ecuador was pretty straightforward. By skillfully manipulating the business sector, the pressure of the Ecuadorian leadership successfully influenced the change of heart regarding the US offer and continued the exports of bananas to Russia.

These two examples, seemingly atypical in the traditional sense of hybrid threat, are clearly reflecting the economic pressures and impact of Russia on smaller players on the global scene. According to Global Security Review, hybrid warfare combines conventional and unconventional methods, including military operations, cyber warfare, disinformation campaigns and economic pressure.

These kinds of tactics aiming at destabilizing smaller countries through trade embargo, political pressure, cyber attacks and disinformation by means of the propaganda arm of Sputnik and RT, are everyday activities of Russia’s operations on the global scene.

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