Russian Federation Extends Food Trade Ban to Five More Countries

He said Ukraine would be added in 2016 if an economic agreement between Kiev and the European Union came into force. In June, the Kremlin prolonged the ban following the EU’s decision to extend its sanctions through January.

“I would like to note that a number of countries, which have a similar agreement with the European Union, have refused to impose sanctions against Russian Federation”.

“The government of Montenegro regrets the decision by the government of the Russian Federation on including Montenegro in the list of countries falling under a ban on imports of agricultural products, raw materials and foodstuffs”, a report placed on the governmental website said.

“Joining the sanctions is a conscious choice which means readiness for retaliatory measures from our part, which have been adopted”, Medvedev said in comments broadcast on state-owned channel Rossiya 24.

Russia’s food ban, which covers imports such as meat, dairy products, fruit and vegetables, will be in place until August 2016.

The countries join the EU, as well as the US, Canada, Norway and Australia, as markets and nations hit by Russia’s embargo. For example, around 10% of Icelandic seafood is exported to Russian Federation, and Russia was Albania’s third biggest trading partner, after U.S. and China in 2014.

But he added that, due to the conflict, “Ukraine-Russia trade has now, in any case, dropped drastically – it’s nearly negligible”. The highly-publicized destruction of goods has prompted a wave of criticism from anti-poverty campaigners, however, who say the food could feed the 16.1 million people living below the poverty line in Russian Federation.