MOSCOW, August 7 (RIA Novosti) – New import restrictions recently adopted by Russia will increase the demand for domestic products and thus keep Russians healthy, Anatoly Aksakov, deputy chairman of the committee on financial markets in the State Duma, the Russian parliament’s lower chamber, said Thursday.
“I think it an adequate measure. Basically, we import up to 50 percent of food products but it doesn’t mean our country do not produce these products. It means that the price of these [imported] products, given they are often of a poor quality and bad for health, is lower,” the lawmaker said.
“In fact, we should have made this decision long before, not because of sanctions but in order to protect our people, their health,” Aksakov added.
According to the parliamentarian, Russia did not adopt import restrictions earlier because they could have had a negative impact on international relations.
“We have been treating established ties with foreign countries with due care. But they [foreign countries] themselves made the move towards the deterioration [of relations], despite the good will of our country," the lawmaker said.
"The import ban will have positive consequences for Russia," Aksakov said, adding that, “From an international viewpoint, we have finally started to make not always popular but right decisions aimed at protecting our market from low-quality products.”
On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin singed an order on economic measures to protect the country's security. The decree banned for a year imports of agricultural and food products from countries that have imposed sanctions on Russia. The complete “blacklist” of imports is expected to be announced later on Thursday.
The European Union, the United States, Canada and Japan have compiled sanctions lists against Russian companies, banks, politicians, as well as the financial, energy and defense sectors of the Russian economy. The move has been linked to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
Moscow has repeatedly called the measures counterproductive and stressed that Russia was never involved in the Ukrainian conflict.
