MOSCOW, August 07. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia will negotiate with Belarus to prevent a re-export of banned western food products from the Belarusian territory, the Russian agricultural watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said on Thursday.

The Russian government has officially published a list of agricultural products and foodstuffs banned for imports from the EU, the United States and other countries in response to their sanctions against Russia over its stance on Ukraine.

Rosselkhoznadzor head Sergei Dankvert will go to Belarus on August 12 to hold talks with Belarusian Agriculture Minister Leonid Zayats on preventing re-exports of banned foods from Belarus, which forms the Customs Union with Russia and Kazakhstan.

“We expect a large amount of smuggling from European suppliers. This issue will be discussed during the negotiations,” Rosselkhoznadzor spokeswoman Yulia Trifonova said.

Both sides will also discuss expanding dairy product supplies to Russia from Belarus, the spokeswoman said.

 

Belarus ready to boost food supplies to Russia

Belarus has resources needed to raise food export supplies to Russia, republican Deputy Prime Minister Mikhail Rusy told ITAR-TASS on Thursday.

“We are prepared to raise supplies of agrarian produce [to Russia],” the Belarusian deputy prime minister said.

The Belarusian Agriculture Ministry and the republican union of consumer societies are instructed to prepare a list of products which can be delivered to Russia “over negotiated supplies,” he said. “Today Belarus has some capacities to increase food supplies on the Russian market,” Rusy said.

 

Russia’s first response to western sanctions

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin ordered on August 6 to ban or restrict for one year the imports of agricultural produce, raw materials and foodstuffs from countries that joined the economic sanctions against Russia over its stance on Ukraine.

In his order on special economic measures to ensure Russia’s security, Putin instructed the government to specify a list of food imports, which will be restricted or banned and also urged to take measures to restrain the food price growth in the country.

Meanwhile, a governmental resolution which Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed on Thursday holds that Russia has imposed a full one-year ban on supplies of beef, pork, cheeses, poultry meat, milk, fish from EU states, the United States, Australia, Canada and Norway.