MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Russian government has instructed the country's agricultural watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor to strengthen control over the products imported from Turkey, the Russian minister of agriculture said Thursday.
"Given the repeated violations of Russian standards by Turkish producers, the Russian government has instructed the Rosselkhoznadzor to introduce strict controls over the delivery of agricultural and food products from Turkey and arrange additional checks at the border and at production sites in the Republic of Turkey," Alexander Tkachev said as quoted by the ministry's press service.
According to the minister, on average, 15 percent of Turkish agricultural products do not comply with Russian standards. He added that the Russian authorities detected residues of banned and harmful substances in the Turkish products of animal origin 40 times since the beginning of the year.
On Tuesday, a Russian Su-24 jet crashed in Syria. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the plane was downed by an air-to-air missile launched by a Turkish F-16 jet over Syrian territory, falling 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from the Turkish border. Putin described the Turkish attack as a "stab in the back" carried out by "accomplices of terrorists."
