Russia's President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree on extension of Russian counter-sanctions until December 31, 2019, according to the document published on the website of legal information.
"To extend from January 1 to December 31, 2019 separate special economic measures stipulated by the Russian President’s decree dated August 6, 2014," the document says.
The government has been tasked with enforcement of respective measures, and "proposals on changing … the period of validity of separate special economic measures to be made if necessary."
In March 2014, the European Union and a number of countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, Switzerland, New Zealand, Iceland and others, began to impose sanctions against Russia over the situation in Ukraine.
On August 6, 2014, the Russian President signed the decree "On the application of certain special economic measures to ensure the security of the Russian Federation." The next day, on the basis of the presidential order, the Russian government banned the imports from the US, the European Union, Norway, Australia and Canada of cattle meat, pork, poultry meat and by-products, salty, dried and smoked meat, shellfish, molluscs and other water invertebrates, milk and milk products, vegetables, edible root crops and tuber crops, fruits and nuts, sausages, and milk-containing products based on vegetable fats.
On August 13, 2015, the Russian government extended the list of countries that were banned from importing to Russia agricultural products, raw materials and food supplies by adding Albania, Montenegro, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Ukraine (sanctions against it came into effect on January 1, 2016) on the list.
The list of sanctioned products has been updated six times since August 2015. Food supplements were removed from this list on September 16, 2015, and some fry and young oysters and mussels, on March 1 and October 22, 2016. On May 27, 2016, poultry meat, beef and vegetables for infant food production were allowed to be imported to Russia. On September 10, 2016, salt was added to the list, but the amendment of May 20, 2017, specified that the ban did not include salt for dietary supplements and medical products.
On June 29, 2016, Putin signed an order to renew special economic measures until the end of 2017. On July 1, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a corresponding resolution.
