Those damned Polish apples!

"If you want to hurt Putin, eat apples and drink apple wine!", a Polish economics magazine urged its readership about a year ago. That was sort of Poland's response to the Russian counter-embargo on the EU food products (which in turn was a response to the sanctions).

The call became "viral" across Poland in a heartbeat. Just within days, a hashtag called #jedzjablka (eat apples) became #1 there. If you were goin to say right now that hashtags don't do a thing, prepare to get yourself surprised. Because after thousands of Poles spent weeks sharing pictures of people eating apples and drinking apple wine in solidarity to the Polish farmers, things began to change. A facetious post entitled "An apple a day keeps Putin away" became immensely popular among the Polo-sphere. And that was just one among many symbolic gestures that grew into something real.

This campaign has worked miracles...