MOSCOW, April 25. /TASS/. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will on Monday make a working trip to the city of Chelyabinsk in the Urals to hold a meeting of the government commission on import substitution.
The government press service reported that the meeting will discuss "measures to implement plans of import substitution in industry in 2016, as well as development and implementation of import substitution plans in the fuel and energy sector."
The event will involve Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, a number of ministers and heads of relevant enterprises.
The government commission on import substitution led by the premier of the Russian Federation was established in August 2015 to coordinate activities to reduce the dependence of Russian industry branches from imports.
Speaking on April 19 in the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, with an annual report on government work, Medvedev said import substitution remains the key structural reform for the next few years "regardless of what is going on with different sanctions."
He underscored that the country needs competitive domestic goods and a number of support measures have been taken to solve the task.
A system of import substitution had to be introduced in Russia in connection with imposition of Western sanctions on Russia for developments in Ukraine and Moscow’s countersanctions.
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Russia has constantly dismissed allegations that Moscow could in any way be involved in destabilization in Ukraine.
In his address to the Federal Assembly, Russia's parliament, on December 4, 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the import substitution policy is among the country’s long-term priorities.
For incorporation of Crimea after last year’s coup in Ukraine, Russia came under sanctions on the part of the United States and many European countries. The restrictive measures were soon intensified following Western and Ukrainian claims that Russia supported militias in self-proclaimed republics in Ukraine’s southeast and was involved in destabilization of Ukraine.
As countermeasures, Russia imposed on August 6, 2014 a one-year ban on imports of beef, pork, poultry, fish, cheeses, fruit, vegetables and dairy products from Australia, Canada, the European Union, the United States and Norway.
The Russian authorities have repeatedly denied accusations of "annexing" Crimea, because Crimea reunified with Russia voluntarily after a referendum, as well as claims that Moscow could in any way be involved in hostilities in Ukraine’s east.