When it comes to sanctions, Russia is known for its tit-for-tat approach. After the conflict with Ukraine began in 2014 with Russia annexing Crimea, and the US and EU banned the import of Russian military and energy-related technology, Russia burned American cheese.

But a weird thing happened when Ukraine banned all TV content created in Russia after 2014. Russia didn’t impose the same ban on Ukraine. Instead, they started buying Ukrainian TV shows like crazy.

For PRI’s The World [a co-production of the BBC]

[For a complete archive of my stories for PRI’s The World, click here.]