Giant Russian farms with ties to the political elite have taken control of vast swaths of land to fill gaps on supermarket shelves left by bans on Western imports, according to business consultants and charities.
Russia's five largest landowners together now control an area the size of Belgium after expanding rapidly to increase domestic production of foods whose import is banned, including beef and chicken, according to Moscow-based consultant BEFL.
Russia's agriculture sector has boomed since 2015, when President Vladimir Putin banned many imports from the European Union and other states in retaliation against sanctions imposed against Russia after the Ukraine crisis of 2014.
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