Russia does not plan to call off sanctions on products from Lithuania

Russia’s veterinary and phytosanitary service (Rosselkhoznadzor) has approached some European countries with a proposal to cooperate so that their producers could resume the supply to Russia after the lifting of sanctions. Sergey Dankvert, the head of the Russian service, reportedly came up with such an initiative in many meetings with his European colleagues in Berlin.

“I’ve heard about that. I was told that yesterday by the head of our veterinary service, Jonas Milius. He met with the heads of the Russian veterinary service. But the countries mentioned do not include Lithuania,” Agriculture Minister Virginija Baltraitienė told the reporters on the sidelines of the International Green Week Berlin 2015 on Friday.

According to Milius, the list of countries, which would resume the supply of food to Russia, does not include Lithuania.

“We spoke about that, I attended the meeting with five more European countries… France, Denmark and the Netherlands are particularly willing to call off those sanctions and are ready to sign bilateral agreements on certain food products. However, Lithuania has not been mentioned in that list…,” the head of the Lithuanian Food and Veterinary Service told the reporters.

Dankvert has stated that the lifting of sanctions is being discussed with “colleagues from Germany, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Italy, Hungary and other countries”.

According to him, Rosselkhoznadzor is waiting for rapid replies to this initiative.

Early in August, Russia imposed a one-year ban on the imports of food and farm products from the EU, US and other Western countries, in retaliation for Western sanctions over Moscow’s involvement in the Ukraine crisis.

The West’s year-long sanctions on Russia were introduced last March.