GORKI (outside MOSCOW) (Sputnik) — The Russian government has not taken any political decision on the potential ban of Dutch flower imports yet , the issue is still under consideration, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said Thursday.
"We have received such proposals, but have not taken any principal political decision," Dvorkovich told reporters.
"We are continuing to study these proposals and weigh the cons and pros on this issue," he added.
Russia’s agricultural watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said Tuesday that it was almost certain to halt flower imports from the Netherlands because they posed a “serious sanitary threat.”
The watchdog stressed that the possible ban of Netherlands flowers was associated with the repeated detection of quarantined organisms, posing a serious threat to Russian agricultural production and its contribution to the country's economy.
According to media reports, the Netherlands’ biggest agricultural group LTO Nederland suggested the flower import ban threat was linked to the investigation of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash in eastern Ukraine in 2014, which killed all 298 people on board, mostly Dutch citizens.
On July 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone conversation with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte stated the intention to launch an international tribunal to prosecute those responsible for shooting down Flight MH17 was premature, stressing that leaks from the incomplete Dutch report were politicized.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that a possible Dutch flower import ban must not be politicized, stating that the issue is not on the agenda of the Kremlin.
