Russia to add new countries to its food import ban list
MOSCOW, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Russia said on Tuesday it planned to add new countries to the list of those from which it has banned food imports in retaliation for Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over the Ukraine crisis.
Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich did not name the countries to be added to the list. "I think the decision is to be made in the nearest time," Russian news agencies quoted him as saying.
Interfax news agency said the list would be expanded by seven countries. Russia banned most Western food imports last August.
Ukraine, Montenegro, Albania, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Georgia and Norway have aligned themselves with a recent decision by the EU to extend its sanctions against Russia for another year, the EU said in a recent statement.
Of these countries, only Norway is subject to the existing Russian counter-sanctions on food, which cover the United States, Canada and Australia as well as the EU.
The EU and other Western powers imposed sanctions against Russian firms and individuals in response to Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis and annexation of the Crimea peninsula in 2014.
Russia's food ban, currently in place until Aug. 5, 2016, covers a wide range of imports including meat, fish, dairy products, fruit and vegetables.
Dvorkovich also said he expected Russia to export between 25 million and 27 million tonnes of grain in the 2015/16 marketing year.
Sergei Aksyonov, the Kremlin-backed head of the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, has joined Instagram.
Like many Instagram users, Aksyonov seems to be an animal lover. Just don't expect photos of puppies or kittens, though.
The three photos and video published so far on Aksyonov's Instagram account are of a brown bear nicknamed Grozny. According to the captions, the bear was a gift from Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, whom Aksyonov calls his “friend and brother.”
Aksyonov says that Grozny the bear is “sociable but wayward.” The bear now lives at a Simferopol circus.
In his Instagram post, Aksyonov thanks Kadyrov once again, noting that their relationship was established “at a difficult time,” but will only “develop and strengthen.”
Aksyonov’s account has 53 followers, as of this writing.
The British government will intensify its military program in Ukraine, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced after meeting with British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon on August 11.
“Fallon assured [me] that the United Kingdom was and is Ukraine’s friend. ... We have to work together to stop Russian aggression against Ukraine,” Yatsenyuk wrote on Facebook.
This measure will raise the number of Ukrainian troops trained by the British military from 1,000 to 2,000 by the end of the year.
Besides the U.K., several other countries -- including the United States, Canada, Poland, and Lithuania -- are also offering military training to the Ukrainian Army and volunteer battalions.
Interesting MH17 development:
Dutch prosecutors say they have found possible parts of a Russian-made BUK missile system at the site in eastern Ukraine where Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was brought down in 2014, killing all 298 people on board.
A statement from the Netherlands’ national prosecutor’s office, which is involved in a joint international investigation into the MH17 tragedy, said the parts “are of particular interest to the criminal investigation as they can possibly provide more information about who was involved in the crash.”
The possible physical evidence of a missile was in the possession of the Dutch Safety Board.
Flight MH17 crashed over territory held by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine in July 2014, killing all 298 people aboard.
Leaked details of the Dutch-led probe suggest the plane was shot down by a Russian-supplied surface-to-air missile fired from separatist-controlled territory.
The Kremlin blames Ukrainian government forces for downing the plane.
But Russia last month vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have created an international tribunal tasked with putting on trial those identified as the culprits.
The final conclusions of the investigators are expected to be released in October.