flickr.com/photos/nauright
Russian MPs have drafted a bill banning to sell embargoed products, illegally imported to Russia, one of the authors of the document, the first deputy chairman of the Duma Committee for Agrarian Affairs Sergey Karginov said on Monday, according to the Russian newspaper Izvestia.
"There is a gap in the law, used by trade networks, which sell illegally imported products, to evade responsibility," he said.
According to Putin’s Executive Order No. 560 "On the application of certain special economic measures in order to ensure the security of the Russian Federation" and the pursuant government decree No. 778, a ban on the import of a number of foods, including cheese, fish, seafood, meat and deli meats, milk and dairy products, vegetables, fruits and nuts from the United States and the EU has been imposed from August 2014. The ban was amended and extended by a government decree in June 2015.
At the same time, none of these documents established a ban on trade of the embargoed products within the country.
In other words, once smuggled in, the goods may be sold without any penalty for the seller, the newspaper says.
As UNIAN reported earlier, on June 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he had signed an executive order to extend for another year Moscow’s ban on imports of certain products from countries which had earlier imposed sanctions against Russia.
The ban on the import of such products is valid until August 5, 2016. Putin signed the executive order on the destruction of embargoed imports on July 29.
On August 6, Russia launched a new campaign to destroy illegally imported products that were on the list of embargoed foods.