Yesterday Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev instructed that the list of states which do not fall under the influence of Russian sanctions be reviewed He said that there are European countries which have introduced sanctions against Russia, despite the fact that Moscow did not impose any prohibitions or restrictions against them.
"If there were such decisions, we need to prepare the appeal to the President on a supplement to the decree with additional countries which introduced such decisions in respect of the Russian Federation," TASS cited him as saying.
A leading researcher at the Institute of Applied Economic Research of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economics and Public Administration, Alexander Abramov, told Vestnik Kavkaza that the decision to extend the food embargo is due to the recent addition of a number of countries joining the anti-Russian sanctions. "Montenegro, Albania, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Ukraine and Georgia have confirmed their decision to extend their compliance with the EU sanctions. So it's a kind of response to this move," he stressed.
The expert drew attention to the fact that the expansion of sanctions will have a negative impact on the availability of goods and their prices. "The decision to destroy the products will make the Russian market less varied," Alexander Abramov concluded.
The director of the Center for Political Information, Alexei Mukhin, in his turn, also linked the decision to extend the sanctions list to the accession of seven countries to the anti-Russian sanctions. He also noted that the expansion of the food embargo will not affect ordinary Russian citizens, since the products which fall under the sanctions are not products of mass consumption. "In addition, it will stimulate the development of domestic producers very well," Mukhin said.
"Under normal circumstances, it would be incorrect with respect to our partners which are WTO members. But in the present situation it is a necessary decision," the director of the Center for Political Information concluded.
