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.
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Not so long ago in eastern Europe, a region on the periphery of a country in crisis took up arms against the new government.
With the help of fighters, weapons, cash and a massive propaganda campaign from its big neighbour, the separatists declared independence and held an illegal referendum that supposedly backed unification with its powerful ally.
The world did not recognise the sovereignty of this crime-ridden, hyper-militarised breakaway region, but with the backing of its big ally it paralysed the rest of the country’s plans for economic development and integration with the West.
The neighbouring country, under an increasingly autocratic president, used its media to convince residents of the isolated province that the rest of the country was now run by murderous fascists intent on brutally suppressing them.
A large portion of the region’s population fled the chaos, and those who remained saw the economy collapse, criminality thrive and peace plans and ceasefires come and go.
With time came a kind of bleak stability; elections were held, a new currency was launched and politician-warlords held sway for as long as they enjoyed the favour of the big neighbour.