MOSCOW – The giraffes at the Moscow Zoo like to eat apples from Poland. But
they probably never meant their preference to be a political statement.

The more than 6,000 animals in Russia’s largest zoo have been caught up in
the worst fight between Russia and the West since the Cold War. A
wide-ranging ban on Western food announced this week by the Kremlin has
forced a sudden diet change for creatures that eat newly forbidden fruit.

The sanctions against meat, fish, fruits and vegetables from the United
States, the European Union and other Western countries were intended to
strike a counterblow to nations that have hit Russia over its role in
Ukraine’s roiling insurgency. But the measures will also have an impact on
stomachs at the zoo.

The sea lions crack open Norwegian shellfish. The cranes peck at Latvian
herring. The orangutans snack on Dutch bell peppers. Now the venerable
Moscow Zoo needs to find politically acceptable substitutes to satisfy
finicky animal palates.

“They don’t like Russian food,” zoo spokeswoman Anna Kachurovskaya said.
“They’re extremely attached to what they like, so it’s a hard question for
us.

“We are not talking about Brie. We’re just talking about ordinary food.”

None of the animals eat such a specialized diet that they will starve, she
said, and the zoo has endured tough times before.

Founded in 1864 during the reign of the modernizing Czar Alexander II, the
zoo survived several revolutions, the ravages of a world war and the 1991
collapse of Soviet communism. When troops loyal to President Boris Yeltsin
in 1993 shelled Russia’s White House, half a mile away, the noise made the
animals panic, according to contemporaneous news accounts.

At the time, food shortages in grim post-Soviet Russia meant that the
animals had barely enough to fill their bellies, let alone a choice of
Western-sourced fruits and vegetables. Those days are long gone, and the
manicured lawns and modernized exhibition halls drew a wide range of Russian
families Friday .

Two elephants jostled each other as they scooped up Russian-grown hay from
an attendant. A giraffe poked its head out of an elegant, peach-colored and
colonnaded building that dated to the czarist era. Visitors snapped
smartphone photos and gawked at an orangutan mother pulling her child up
onto a rope set, as the universal stench of primate houses perfumed the air.

Among Russian humans, the new one-year food ban – imposed in reaction to the
Western sanctions that target Russian energy, defense and financial sectors
– has been met with widespread praise. “Like they say, we’re kicking back,”
said Roman Kersonov, 25, a fire alarm technician.

As he strolled out of a central Moscow grocery store, he was drinking kvass,
a soft drink derived from fermented bread. “I’m not worried. We’ve been
through worse times.”

But the shopping carts full of Baltic herring that zookeepers were pushing
through the bird exhibits Friday will soon be emptier. And the changes will
drive up food prices for the cash-strapped zoo, Kachurovskaya said.

“Inside the zoo, we’re discussing a lot of questions. We’re discussing from
what countries we can find all this food, and how much it will cost,” she
said.

Substitutions may be logistically difficult, and food costs will rise at a
time when budgets are already strapped.

The sea lions’ shellfish will have to come all the way from Iceland. Russia
can provide the apples, but because of inefficient supply chains, Russian
apples are more expensive than the Polish equivalent. Egypt and Turkey can
send over many of the vegetables.

The penguins eat fish from Argentina – whose food sales to Russia have not
been blocked and are politically in the clear.

Orangutans, gorillas and monkeys are particularly finicky eaters at the zoo,
but Kachurovskaya said they would eventually adapt.

“In the wild, they eat what they have, not what they want,” she said.

Even as the zoo animals on Friday ate the dwindling supplies of their
imported food, Russian officials met to discuss weightier affairs of state.

President Vladimir Putin met with his security council to discuss Russia’s
economic security, and the situation in Ukraine, the Kremlin said.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin met Friday with E.U.
Ambassador to Russia Vygaudas Usackas to discuss the tit-for-tat sanctions,
the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

“No one is scared” of the E.U. sanctions, the ministry said in a statement.
“This is not our choice, but we will not leave an escalation of sanctions
unanswered.”

Other Russian leaders said Friday that the food bans were a much-needed
impetus for Russia to bolster its own agricultural industry.

“The measures that we are taking now are related to enhancing national
security,” Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin was quoted as saying by the
Interfax news agency. “Let it be food security or industrial security.”

Russia’s best traits are demonstrated “during ordeal,” he said.