Five years after sanctions, Russian cheeses getting top marks Elvira Kovtun made her first cheese in a pot in her kitchen four years ago. Kovtun, a housewife and mostly self-taught cheesemaker, became so good that she and her husband decided to turn her passion into a business. Last month, the high-school sweethearts and parents of three became the first Russians to win a gold prize at the World Cheese Awards, with their "Peshernyi" hard cheese taking the honour at the industry's equivalent of the Oscars. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES