Sanctioned products to be destroyed at border and inside Russia - report

© RIA Novosti, Maxim Blinov

10:33 03/08/2015

MOSCOW, August 3 (RAPSI) - The Federal Customs Service (FTS), the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Protection (Rospotrebnadzor) and Welfare and the Federal Agency for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision (Rosselkhoznadzor) will search for and destroy banned food products not only at the border but across the country, including in stores and at grocery store chain warehouses, Kommersant reports on Monday.

Last week the Government approved a new regulation on eliminating sanctioned products imported to Russia. The products can be destroyed by any means stipulated by law and regardless of whether the owner has been established or not or who organized the imports.

The products must be destroyed immediately after they are confiscated with the process recorded by photo and video, in the presence of at least two disinterested parties. Authorized representatives of the FTS, Rospotrebnadzor and Rosselkhoznadzor will make the decision on confiscation and destruction.

Since it is not only the customs service that is responsible for eliminating banned products, the search can cover the entire country, according to Vadily Itskov, Head of Dispute Resolution Practice at Gorizont Kapital, an investment financial company.

Until recently, the inspection and destruction of products were conducted only at the border because the majority of prohibited imports were brought into the country as shipments transiting Russia.