Putin Puts His Foot Down: Russia To Sanction The West
Putin Puts His Foot Down: Russia To Sanction The West
Russia will now ban all imports of US food products apart from fruits and vegetables from the EU. This follows an order by Russian President Vladmir Putin for curbing the West in return for its sanctions against Moscow. The state news agency has reported how Russia will now give it back to EU and the US for the sanctions that have been imposed on the nation.
Russia has always been a major buyer of food from the US and Europe. But with this ban, the sanctions game is escalating and Cold War apart, Russia is getting ready to hurt the US where it counts the most-the cash. Putin has just signed a degree halting or limiting imports of agricultural products from countries that have imposed sanctions on Russia and the Russian government is now framing a list of imports to be banned for a year.
"(All food products) that are being produced in the US and being supplied to Russia will be banned," Russian media news agency Ria Novosti quoted Alexei Alekseenko, spokesman for the VPSS food standards agency, as saying. "Fruit and vegetables from EU will be covered by the total ban," he also indicated to the media.
Russia is boycotting a host of Western good . This is not good news for the EU. Russia is one of the biggest buyers of fruits and vegetables in the EU and it has purchased around 21.5% of the EU vegetable exports as well as 28% of the fruit exports of the bloc since 2011. Even US poultry market will feel the pinch as Russia has barred US poultry products.
Considering that Russia has purchased 276,000 tonnes of US poultry products which is 8% of the US exports, this will make a dent in the profits of EU and the US. Russia was the second largest buyer of US poultry products following Mexico according to the US Department of Agriculture.
Following the issuing of the decree by Putin, the VPSS has indicated that it would discuss the option to increase food imports from Non-US nations such as Ecuador as well as Brazil, Chile and Argentina. Brazil could benefit by additional orders of 150, 000 of chicken from Russia according to Francisco Turra who is the president of an animal protein association named ABPA.
Washington and the EU were the first to impose sanctions following the Ukraine crisis. Now Russia is showing that 2 can play the game. Whether this latest round of sanctions and counter-sanctions will culminate into Economic Crisis 2.0 is yet to be seen.
