MOSCOW, August 21 (RIA Novosti) – The Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman on Thursday criticized the calls of the European Union member states on the third countries urging not to take advantage of Russia’s embargo on European food imports, saying that every country is free to choose its trade partners on its own.
“We believe that the third states, to which the European Union is making its appeal, are quite capable of deciding themselves what they should do in a situation that gives them new opportunities to expand their exports, including to the Russian market,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said.
“It looks like Brussels has nothing to truly compensate its agricultural companies their losses, so it has to demonstrate its care in such an awkward way,” Lukashevich said, adding that having lost a chance to export many of its products to Russia, the European Union is nevertheless set to keep other states away from its niche on the lucrative Russian market.
“We, on our part, are set to work in a most active way to expand trade and economic ties with our partners, first of all in Asia and Latin America, and we highly appreciate their readiness to do the same,” Lukashevich said.
Ecuador, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Iceland among others, have expressed readiness to boost deliveries of foodstuffs to Russia as President Vladimir Putin signed an order on economic measures to protect the country’s security. Earlier this month, following the West’s introduction of several rounds of sanctions against Russia, Moscow banned the imports of agricultural and food products from the countries that had imposed sanctions on Russia for one year. The list of banned products includes meat, poultry, fish, seafood, milk, dairy products, fruits and vegetables.
Moscow said earlier it was ready to review the terms of its import restrictions if its Western partners showed a commitment to dialogue.
