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Russia-Ukraine trade turnover down 80% in 2015 — official

According to Russia's Deputy Minister of Economic Development Alexey Likhachev, trade turnover is likely to go down further next year

© Artiom Korotaev/TASS

MOSCOW, December 30. /TASS/. Trade turnover between Russia and Ukraine decreased by 80% in 2015, First Deputy Minister of Economic Development Alexey Likhachev said in an interview aired by the Rossiya-24 TV news channel on Wednesday.

"Trade turnover has already taken a beating as it will plunge by 80% by the end of 2015 compared with the "fattest" years," he said, adding that "this is the most unprecedented case of falling trade turnover with one of top 10 countries."

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According to Likhachev, trade turnover is likely to go down further next year. "So far there are no good news on Russian-Ukrainian trade and economic track," he said.

On December 24, Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada (parliament) passed the law, which enables the government to impose economic sanctions against Russia. Particularly, the government will have the right to impose "a ban on foreign economic operations or their restriction" as well as abandon tariff preferences.

Ukraine’s parliament passed the document in response for Russia’s law "On suspension of the force of Agreement on free trade zone regarding Ukraine by the Russian Federation," which implies suspension of the force of preferential trade regime with Ukraine for preventing threats to Russia’s economic stability due to implementation of the trade and economic section of the agreement on Ukraine-European Union association from January 1, 2016. On November 18, the Russian government also made a decision to impose food embargo against Ukraine starting from January 1, 2016 due to Kiev’s joining anti-Russian sanctions.

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