MOSCOW, August 26. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian First Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov held talks on Tuesday with newly-appointed Poland’s Ambassador to Russia Katarzyna Pelczynska-Nalecz and received a copy of credentials from her.
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the high-ranking diplomats “discussed a range of key issues, including the situation in Ukraine".
Titov and Pelczynska-Nalecz also discussed “the state of bilateral relation, including in the context of the West-initiated restrictive measures in regard to Russia", the ministry said, adding that the officials also “stressed the importance of maintaining cooperation at the level of foreign ministries as well as to preserve cultural, humanitarian and public relations".
Western sanctions and Russia's response
Relations between Russia and Poland have been strained in the view of Western sanctions against Moscow over its stance on the developments in embattled neighboring Ukraine and Russia’s following retaliatory sanctions earlier this month.
In response to Western sanctions, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on August 6 to ban for one year the imports of agricultural, raw and food products from the countries, which imposed sanctions against Russia.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev announced on August 7 that the Russian government imposed 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 Polish agricultural sector sustained heavy losses after Russia’s response sanctions in regard to the European Union. According to rough estimations, Poland’s losses from Russia’s ban on import of Polish fruit and vegetables may amount to €500 million (almost $669 million).
Cheese producers in Poland are also calculating possible losses as every fifth metric ton of cheese produced in Poland used to be exported to Russia.
The list of the banned products, announced by Prime Minister Medvedev on August 7, includes cattle meat (fresh, chilled and refrigerated), pork (fresh, chilled and refrigerated), poultry meat and all poultry edible by-products, salted meat, pickled meat, dried meat, smoked meat, fish and shell fish, clams and other water invertebrates, milk and dairy products, vegetables, edible roots and tuber crops, fruits and nuts, sausage and analogous meat products, meat by-products or blood, as well as products made of them, ready-to-eat products including cheeses and cottage-cheese based on vegetable fats.