The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, extended the embargo on food products from the European Union until the end of 2019. The decree was published on July 12, 2018 on the website of the Russian Government.

For the purpose of protecting the national interests of the Russian Federation (…), I decided to extend from 1 January to 31 December 2019 the special economic measures in force prescribed in the presidential decree (…)” – reads the president’s decision.

In the summer of 2014, Moscow decided to ban the import of a number of products from countries that supported anti-Russian sanctions. The United States, Canada, Australia, European Union member states, Norway, Albania, Montenegro, Iceland and Liechtenstein hit the blacklist of the Federation. At the beginning of 2018, Russia updated the list of goods covered by the embargo. From January 1 this year, the embargo also applies to Ukraine.

Penalties for the transport of goods covered by the embargo are very severe and concern both individuals and companies. At the moment, they amount to:

– for natural persons: from 13 to 33 euros (1-2.5 thousand rubles),

– for officials: from 65 to 260 euros (5-20 thousand rubles),

– for legal persons: from 650 to 4 thousand euros (50-300 thousand rubles).

Russia acts to the detriment of its own economy

In April this year, Vladimir Putin thanked the citizens for their understanding of the need to introduce retaliation sanctions. As he stated, „it brought many benefits for domestic producers”. However, everything seems to indicate that in the long-term the embargo rather harmed than helped the Russian economy – prices for food have risen drastically, companies cannot invest in modern technology, credit conditions are very unfavorable for entrepreneurs. Due to the lack of development opportunities, dairy, meat, fruit and vegetable industry are collapsing.

Meanwhile, the Russian president assured that Moscow would maintain the embargo until the West lifts the restrictions.