Why Are the Authorities Seizing Livestock?In February 2026, authorities in Novosibirsk Oblast announced an outbreak of pasteurellosis and later began reporting cases of foot-and-mouth disease as well. Villages in the Ordynsky, Kupinsky, and Karasuksky districts were placed under strict quarantine, entrances were blocked with barriers, and authorities began seizing and burning livestock on a massive scale. Several thousand animals were destroyed, causing hundreds of millions of rubles in irreparable losses to farmers. The seizures resumed in August. In Tyumen Oblast, veterinarians began taking away pigs without conducting preliminary tests or presenting any documents, citing an order from the governor. Farmers suspected that officials were concealing an outbreak of African swine fever. In September, the veterinary service in Irkutsk Oblast imposed a quarantine, allegedly due to an outbreak of lumpy skin disease in cattle. Livestock seizures began in the villages of Butyrki and Koty. How Did Farmers React?Residents of Novosibirsk Oblast blocked the path of specialized vehicles, recorded appeals to Vladimir Putin, and filed complaints with the prosecutor’s office and the Investigative Committee. The authorities responded with detentions and threats of criminal prosecution for “obstructing” veterinarians. Residents of Irkutsk Oblast protested against the construction of livestock burial pits, outraged that the pits were being dug directly in the Sarafanka River bed, potentially contaminating groundwater. Why Does Livestock Seizure Affect Russians So Deeply?To understand the scale of the problem, it is important to consider the realities of life in rural Russia. For many rural residents, owning a cow or a pig is not a hobby or a way to provide their families with more natural food. It is often essential to their survival and, in some cases, their only source of income amid struggling regional economies. Seizing livestock can literally upend people’s lives and deprive them of their livelihoods. The situation is exacerbated by the broader crisis and censorship. People do not know where to turn for help: many media outlets are blocked, while officials fail to respond to their appeals. People feel completely powerless in the face of security forces and officials, who often resort to harsh methods, pushing protesters off roads, detaining activists, threatening criminal prosecution, and burning animals right at the entrances to villages. Svetlana Panina from the village of Novoklyuchi in Novosibirsk Oblast kept a small number of animals at home. On March 12, while she was away, veterinarians arrived and seized, euthanized, and burned more than 200 of her animals, including cows, sheep, goats, piglets, and camels. Svetlana was literally left without a means of supporting herself: the animals were her only source of income. She staged a picket demanding that the order under which her animals had been destroyed be made public, but to no avail. When she went to meet with the agriculture minister, he ran away from her. Why Don’t People Trust Veterinarians and Officials?The main driver of the conflict is a complete lack of transparency. Officials and veterinary services arrived to seize animals without explanation and without presenting inspection reports, test results, or legal orders authorizing the cull. Authorities in different regions reported outbreaks of dangerous diseases that required infected animals to be isolated and destroyed. Residents, however, were convinced that perfectly healthy livestock was being seized without testing and in violation of legally established procedures. For example, under the rules for lumpy skin disease, infected animals are supposed to be treated and healthy ones vaccinated, rather than livestock being culled en masse. The lack of official information gave rise to a wide range of theories and explanations. One popular theory holds that mass culling benefits large agricultural companies seeking to eliminate small private producers and force people to buy their products. Residents often point to Miratorg, which they claim is owned by Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev. Medvedev himself has denied this claim. Distrust of the authorities has also fueled theories about biolabs, “contaminated American or German animal feed,” and sabotage, including the deliberate infection of cattle with rabies and other diseases. Even officials themselves believe some of these theories: at closed-door meetings, Sverdlovsk Oblast Governor Denis Pasler claimed that foot-and-mouth disease had been brought in by a German animal feed company. Journalist Ilya Shepelin explained that a lack of information breeds suspicion. People reason like this: “If they’re not telling me everything, that means they’re hiding something from me, and what people hide is usually something terrible.” The popularity of conspiracy theories can also be explained by people’s sense of powerlessness in the face of the authorities. By spreading speculation, people try to regain a sense of power and agency and to explain the negative events affecting their lives as the result of someone’s deliberate malicious actions. What Will Happen Next?The consequences for rural Russia are catastrophic. First, the rural economy is being devastated: compensation offered by the state (for example, 171–304 rubles per kilogram of live weight, compared with a market price of around 900 rubles) does not cover farmers’ losses and is not enough to buy replacement animals. Second, rural residents are refusing to rebuild their livestock operations. People openly say that after experiencing such arbitrary treatment, they have no desire to start all over again and live in constant fear. The mass culling of cattle in Russia in 2026 has shown that in the absence of institutions that can provide legal protection and a free media, any response to a crisis is immediately suppressed through coercive measures, leaving people impoverished and destroying what remains of citizens’ trust in the state. | 
