MOSCOW, October 4 (RIA Novosti) - Wine from Georgia's breakaway republic of Abkhazia could enter the Russian market soon, Russia's chief sanitary doctor said on Thursday.
Gennady Onishchenko said specialists from Russia's consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor had held summer consultations with their Abkhazian colleagues to discuss this issue.
He added that Abkhazia had presented ten wines and one cognac to be tested.
Russia banned wine imports from the ex-Soviet republics of Georgia and Moldova in March 2006 on sanitary and health grounds. The ban also affected Abkhazian wines marked with Georgian bar codes.
Onischenko said Abkhazia was prepared to supply about 5 million decalitres of wine to Russia annually.
At the same time, Onischenko said he did not know when Georgian wines would reenter the Russian market, as their quality still failed to meet Russian standards.
