‘We’ve never had any problems with the Ural Customs Administration in general or with Koltsovo airport’s customs in particular, as we are not doing business with them directly but use intermediary suppliers instead,’ Mikhail Kovalev, the chef working at Troekurov (Resta Management) said to UrBC.

In the meantime, Yekaterinburg’s restaurateurs were reported by some media to have consulted the city’s Vice Mayor Viktor Konteev, whose press officer was allegedly complaining about the long hours it took to do customs clearing of fresh seafood in Koltsovo airport of Yekaterinburg (despite the well-known fact that some foods, like fresh oysters, for instance, are delivered from France by air and must be transferred to a cool place as soon as humanly possible).

‘In the course of their meeting with Mr. Konteev, the restaurateurs complained about their suppliers, not about the airport customs. All the delays caused by the latter (including the customs vets) were fully justified. For one, one of the suppliers (named La Mare) failed to put stickers on the foods, which means the product was not packaged properly, and the customs officers had every reason to halt the shipment,’ Mr. Kovalev said.

‘I have never made the statements some media claim I have. No one complained about Koltsovo airport’s customs in the course of the meeting with the Vice Mayor; as I said, we complained about the suppliers,’ he added.