Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday that he has signed an order banning imports of agricultural products from several non-EU European nations, which joined in on the sanctions against Russia. These include products from Albania, Montenegro, Liechtenstein and Iceland. File photo by UPI Photo/Alex Natin. |
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MOSCOW, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday he signed an order banning imports of agricultural products from several nations that joined in on the sanctions against Russia.
"From now on, the list -- which already includes the EU, Australia, Canada, Norway and the US, and prohibits the supplies of some agricultural products from these countries since last August -- has been extended to Albania, Montenegro, Iceland and Liechtenstein and, subject to special conditions, Ukraine," Medvedev said Thursday, as reported by Russia Today.
"These countries explained their decision to prolong anti-Russian sanctions by the fact that they are obliged to do so under some sorts of agreements with the EU, but this position is only partly true," said Medvedev. "A number of states that have similar agreements with the EU haven't joined the sanctions against Russia, so that was a conscious choice, which means their readiness to a response from our part."
The United States and the EU imposed sanctions in response to the Kremlin's annexation of Crimea and support for pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine. Moscow retaliated by banning Western agricultural products. In June, the Kremlin extended the ban following the EU's decision to extend its own sanctions through January.
"The government order expands the list of countries, against whom our state is introducing responsive economic measures," Medvedev said at a cabinet of ministers meeting, as reported by Interfax. "Now a number of countries have been added... from whom certain types of agricultural products were banned in August of last year," he added.
Russia also announced a ban Thursday on a certain type of canned fish from Poland, The Moscow Times reported. Rospotrebnadzor, the watchdog group, said in a statement that there were health concerns over a brand of Polish sprats.
Politically, Poland land has been a strong critic of Russia's policy -- and military entanglement -- in Ukraine.
Rospotrebnadzor previously imposed a ban on certain types of Polish cheese, previously exempt from the wide-ranging 2014 ban on food imports from countries that slapped sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine crisis.
