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In response to sanctions placed on it by other countries, Russia has implemented a number of counter-sanctions. Many of these have been controversial.
The sanctions include , mainly US and EU politicians who were especially arduous in implementing sanctions on Russia.
were also imposed by presidential decree on August 6, 2014. Thus, the Russian government These countries had imposed sanctions on Russia.
Russia later expanded its sanctions to include . Later, Russia added after it was discovered that importers had switched from importing meat to importing live birds and then slaughtering them in Russia. Further, on June 4, 2015 Estonia.
On June 24, 2015, President Putin . The bans were initially only to last one year.
Meanwhile, sanctions were also clarified to allow some foodstuffs to be : . These are things which, it was judged, the Russian market does not currently supply enough of and were needed in significant supply immediately.
Starting from September 1, 2014, the Russian authorities
However, despite sanctions, Russia did not succeed in preventing Western foodstuffs from entering Russia, largely because, as Russian officials have stated, Belarusian and Serbian companies organized the by illegally changing the production labels. So, Russia imposed restrictions on food imports from Serbia and Belorussia as well. Russians joked about some instances of this re-exportation. For example, Belarus, a land-locked country, was suddenly exporting large amounts of seafood that it allegedly produced to Russia.
In addition, much produce came to Russia via Belarus or with falsified forms which don’t fall under the embargo, as the country of origin. In another case, a St. Petersburg port received several refrigerated containers labeled “chemical goods” which actually contained embargoed meat.
Some food suppliers found loopholes in the embargo regulations. For example, According to the Federal Taxation Service, import of lactose-free cheese grew by 750% in 2014 as compared to 2013.
According to the Russian Customs Service, only about 10% of all illegal shipments were stopped. Citing this, in the fall of 2015, the Russian authorities started . Before this, any shipments were returned to the owner, at cost to Russia. The owner often then made a second attempt to export his/her goods to Russia.
RBC business news agency reports that after the food embargo was imposed, Rosselkhoznadzor (Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance) , issuing permissions to Belarussian companies for supplying meat dairy products, and to companies from New Zealand, Argentina, and Nicaragua for supplying meat to Russia. Such licenses give Russia greater oversight of products coming into Russia.
Some experts have been extremely skeptical about possible outcomes of Russia’s embargo. Kommersant newspaper wrote that indicating that Russia is essentially fighting massively more powerful enemy and stands little chance of winning.
At the same time, the foodstuff embargo does not significantly damage the EU countries’ economies, Kommersant reports, because Furthermore, . Many experts assume that Russia was hoping that the disproportionate political sway that farmers have in the EU would help force a dialog on sanctions.
President Putin and others in the Russian government have claimed that the sanctions will give impetus to the development of Russian agriculture and to . Economists have noted growth in Russian agricultural production and economic activity. However, if this growth would be continued after sanctions are lifted and Russian products once more compete with foreign products is debated.
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