Russia declared “milk war” on Belarus (Video)

The Russian Federal Consumer Rights Protection and Human Health Control Service banned the import of 500 types of milk product from Belarus. The ban came in force since June 6. It’s a serious blow to Belarusian producers depriving them of sale markets.

As Russia’s chief sanitary officer Gennady Onishchenko said, it was connected with the fact the Belarusian producers didn’t obtain approvals required by Russia’s new regulations enacted as far back as December 2008.

“Unfortunately, I have to note that the Belarusian dairies do not hasten to perform the Russian laws and don’t complete documentations required by the technical regulations. I warned them but they haven’t reacted,” BelaPAN quotes Onishchenko.

According to him, almost 500 types of milk products imported from Belarus to Russia don’t have the documents satisfying the new regulations. “This fact makes us react in a proper manner. Today I signed an appropriate letter to the Federal Customs Service, which means that access for these products has been suspended to the entire territory of Russia,” Onishchenko said.

Deliveries of dairy products were under discussion at Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s meeting with Russian provincial governors and managers of farms held in the Belgorod province on June 5.

Putin emphasized the need to ensure that rules for government subsidies provided to agricultural producers should be equal in Belarus and Russia. In particular, he noted Belarus gave 24% subsidies to Belarusian dairies while Russia’s subsidies were only 3%.

Governor of the Belgorod province Yevgeny Savchenko said in turn that imports of Belarusian whole milk to Russia was two million tons a year. “Belarus is destroying our milk industry today. Perhaps, it is being done purposefully,” the governor supposed.

Putin said he partially agreed with that. “Naturally, it is not being done purposefully. But I told Mr Lukashenka about them [the subsidies]. He is a peculiar person and his reply was the following, ‘Yours should not whine but cut costs,” the prime minister said.