The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, extended this Monday until the end of 2024 the embargo on Western perishable foods, in force since 2014, according to a decree published this Monday in Moscow.
The embargo limits the entry into the country of agricultural products, raw materials and food from countries that imposed sanctions on Russia after the illegal annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in March 2014.
The decree provides for the extension of the “special economic measures” approved on August 6, 2014, “with the aim of ensuring the security of the Russian Federation.”
The measures will be in force until December 31, 2024, according to the presidential decree, cited by the Spanish agency EFE.
Putin, who ordered the annexation of four more Ukrainian regions a year ago, had previously extended the embargo in October 2022, eight months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The West imposed the first sanctions on Russia after the annexation of Crimea, which it reinforced after the start of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine and Moscow’s support for pro-Russian militias in Donetsk and Luhansk.
Russia responded with sanctions limiting the import of a variety of goods produced in countries Moscow considers hostile.
At the end of September, Russia annexed the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia, in a decision also considered illegal by Ukraine and the majority of the international community.
Russia first imposed the food embargo in August 2014 against the European Union, the United States, Australia, Norway and Canada.
They were followed, in 2015, by Albania, Montenegro, Iceland and Liechtenstein and, in 2016, Ukraine itself.
In addition to meat, dairy products, fish, vegetables and fruits, Moscow added, in 2017, live pigs and various animal by-products and fats.
The Russian leader subsequently ordered that all Western perishables illegally entering the Russian market be destroyed.
Putin admitted that the embargo constitutes, in reality, a protectionist measure to safeguard the Russian agri-food market, which cannot compete with Western exports.
Many Russian producers maintain that the embargo on the West should last as long as possible, EFE added.
Source: TSF
