MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday he has signed a government decree on extending countermeasures against countries that have imposed sanctions against Russia.
The prime minister added that Russia's countermeasures to western sanctions were not politically motivated.
“I would like to emphasize separately that our actions are based first of all on economic and not political reasons. Our agrarians asked us to keep the food embargo of these types of foodstuffs as long as possible,” Medvedev said.
Medvedev said that the agricultural sector has started to develop more dynamically because of government support and the implementation of import restrictions.
“For obvious reasons, we made these decisions a year ago and are extending them in response to the well-known decisions by the European Union and a range of other governments. We did not start this sanction standoff and in order for it to end, mutual decisions are necessary. Unfortunately, we so far don’t see any changes from the part of these states,” Medvedev added.
