Putin adviser Elena Yampolskaya backs removing pizza from Russian school canteens

A proposal from a security activist

Vitaly Borodin, whom the reports describe as leading a federal project on security and anti-corruption, or a foundation with similar aims, took aim at pizza in a Telegram post. He presented the dish as more than ordinary food, arguing it amounted to foreign soft power. Borodin complained that a generation of Russian children had been raised on imported fast food and could no longer name traditional dishes such as kulebyaka, kurnik, rasstegai or echpochmak, which are meat and vegetable pies rooted in Russian, Tatar and Cossack cooking. In the same post he claimed that Italy is on the list of hostile countries and supplies weapons to the Kyiv regime. He also called on the authorities to ban foreign-language business names, such as 'pizzeria', and wrote that pizza came first and Halloween followed.

A presidential adviser endorses the ban

Elena Yampolskaya, the presidential adviser on cultural, linguistic and school policy, endorsed the proposal when reporters asked for comment. She said pizza is not a suitable food for school institutions because it does not benefit children's health. In her view, a child eating pizza with parental permission or to mark a celebration is one thing, while finding it in a school canteen is another, and she said she was very surprised that such a thing exists. She argued that schools and kindergartens should follow state policy, which in her account aims to restore traditional values. Yampolskaya proposed that children be offered kulebyaka, a traditional stuffed Russian pie, instead, noting that not all parents have time to cook traditional dishes at home. She stopped short of calling kulebyaka healthy, saying that would be a different discussion. She is subject to sanctions from the European Union and the United Kingdom.

Reactions and background

The campaign has drawn a number of reactions. The state news agency Ris Novosti published an editorial criticising the restrictions being proposed. Protest has also followed the idea. In November 2022, Vladimir Putin signed a decree stressing the state's role in preserving traditional spiritual and moral values rooted in the country's cultural heritage. Borodin has denounced foreign influence before, including an earlier complaint about Santa Claus, so the pizza campaign continues a pattern in his public statements.

Italy's response and where the debate stands

Neapolitan pizza-making has been on UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage since 2017. Yampolskaya's remarks separate canteens from home consumption, leaving pizza at celebrations or with parental permission outside the proposal. Coverage dated 9 November 2026 describes the dispute as intensifying. The reports describe statements and an initiative rather than a measure adopted by any authority.