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Russia to ban Belarus food shipments certified by Tunisia

The measure is proposed to battle systematic attempts by Western suppliers to circumvent Russia’s ban on many food imports, fraudulently re-exporting European fruit and vegetables through Belarus

© TASS/Evgeniy Kurskov

MOSCOW, February 3. /TASS/. Russia will impose a ban from Wednesday on imports of food products certified by Tunisia being delivered to Russia via Belarus, Russia's agricultural watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said on Tuesday.

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The measure is proposed to battle systematic attempts by Western suppliers to circumvent Russia’s ban on many food imports, fraudulently re-exporting European fruit and vegetables through Belarus using fake certificates.

In a statement, Rosselkhoznadzor said that from now on those products certified by Tunisia could enter the country only if they passed through Russian border checkpoints.

In August, Russia introduced a sweeping ban on imports of fruit, vegetables, meat, poultry, fish and dairy from the European Union and some other countries in retaliation for Western sanctions over events in Ukraine.

Since then, Rosselkhoznadzor inspectors have more than once revealed cases of goods being shipped to Russia via Belarus with fake certificates, including fruit and vegetable products subject to sanctions.

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