MOSCOW, June 6 (ITAR-TASS) - Russia's EU envoy, Vladimir Chizhov, has expressed the hope that "killer cucumber" row will be resolved before the Russia-EU summit due on June 9-10.
"I sincerely hope that the row will be resolved before the summit and things will be made clear," he said on Monday.
"Nobody has proved so far that cucumbers should be blamed for," the diplomat said. "Until the source of the epidemic is exposed and the European Union provides safety guarantees of its vegetables, the Russian consumer rights watchdog's ban remains," Chizhov said.
The norms of the World Trade Organization clearly outline the possibility of such bans like an embargo on vegetables from the EU in case of a threat to people's health, he said in a video link-up between Moscow and Brussels.
"That reaction of the European Union about disproportionate measures imposed by Russia looks strange and unexplainable. We realize that farmers suffer damage, but financial losses are incompatible with people's life," he said.
According to Chizhov's estimates, "22 people died of the virus and around 2,300 were infected."