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Russia not to review ban on sanctioned prepaid goods - Medvedev

“This decision will not be reconsidered”, Prime Minister told Nikolay Tsukanov, governor of Kaliningrad region

SOCHI, September 20. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia will not reconsider its decision to ban imports of certain goods, including the prepaid ones, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday.

“This decision will not be reconsidered”, Medvedev told Nikolay Tsukanov, governor of Kaliningrad region, who said that many businessmen there had paid a quarter in advance by credit money for products Russia banned from entry in response to Western sanctions over events in Ukraine.

The payments reached from $40 to 70 million, the governor said at an investment forum in the southern Russian resort city Sochi.

“These are companies’ losses and this is force majeure,” the prime minister said. “The issue is over and I ask you not to go back to that.”

Russia banned imports of meat, fish, dairy, fruit and vegetables from the United States, the 28-nation European Union, Australia, Canada and Norway for 12 months at the start of August, retaliating for Western penalties over events in Ukraine.

Combined with other import bans imposed earlier this year, the latest trade measures cover Western imports worth $9.1 billion in 2013, according to Russian customs data.