BRUSSELS, March 16. /TASS/. The European Union, which unveiled its fourth package of anti-Russian sanctions on Tuesday, decided not no prohibit imports of Russian-made luxury goods, such as vodka and caviar, the European Commission said.
"Does the ban on luxury goods also cover imports from Russia (such as caviar or vodka)? No, the focus of this package of sanctions is on depriving Russia from EU luxury goods," the organization said.
The European Union introduced a restriction for trading of iron and steel goods with Russia and imposed a ban on certain luxury goods sales to Russia, according to the Official Journal of the EU. The list of prohibited goods includes, among other things, expensive cars and motorcycles (worth over 50,000 euro and 5,000 euro, respectively), as well as perfume, alcohol, household appliances and clothes worth over 300 euro per one item.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in Ukraine, stressing that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories. Putin said that the goals of the operation are demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine. Subsequently, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and some other countries started imposing sanctions on Russian individuals and companies.