The latest salvo in a bizarre exchange of international sanctions has been fired. Russia has already taken its boycott of Western foodstuffs to theatrical extremes, bulldozing piles of cheese and destroying apples whose sole fault was their Polish origin. Now the government of Vladimir Putin seems to be turning on household cleansers as it tries to scour away the taint of Western business.

Russian state regulator Rospotrebnadzor had restricted the sale of laundry detergents, soaps, and cleaning products manufactured by American, European, and Ukrainian companies, citing unspecified safety concerns after conducting toxicity tests at various manufacturing facilities.