Russia extends ban on Western food products to 2018

As the E.U. extended its sanctions against Russia for another six months, Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree banning imports of Western food products until the end of 2017, the government said on June 29, 2016.

The ban initially applies to meat, poultry, fish, cheese, milk, fruits, and vegetables from the E.U., the United States, Canada, Australia, Norway, Albania, Montenegro, Iceland, and Liechtenstein.

In May, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev proposed prolonging the embargo after the G7 countries agreed to extend their anti-Russian sanctions imposed in 2014 for Kremlin’s role in the Ukrainian crisis and the incorporation of the Crimean Peninsula into the Russian Federation.

On June 28, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at the end of an E.U. leaders’ summit that the extension of the bloc’s sanctions against Russia was “unfortunately necessary.” Merkel linked the continuation of the sanctions to the implementation of the Minsk peace agreements for Ukraine.

On June 29, Putin instructed the government to resume cooperation with Turkey, which Russia also hit with sanctions after a Turkish warplane downed a Russian bomber by the Syrian border in November of 2015. The retaliatory ban on charter flights to Turkey and the food embargo will be lifted in the coming days, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said after telephone talks between the Russian and the Turkish leaders.