Only 20% of Sanctioned Goods Intercepted at Russian Border – Watchdog

Russian agricultural watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor has intercepted over 280 attempts to bring sanctioned goods into Russia from Kazakhstan and Belarus, however, this is only 20 percent of all the contraband, the watchdog’s press service told the Russian Izvestiya newspaper on Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The agricultural watchdog plans to step up its border control efforts in the future so that the share of intercepted contraband from Belarus and Kazakhstan goes up to 50 percent, according to the spokesman.

"We intercepted 82 shipments of animal products from Kazakhstan – meat, fish, cheese, milk products with a total weight of 806 tonnes; from Belarus – 201 shipments with a total weight of 2,669 tonnes, " a Rosselkhoznadzor spokesman said.

In August 2014, Russia banned food imports from EU countries after they imposed sanctions on Moscow over its alleged involvement in the Ukrainian crisis. The EU sanctions were extended in 2015, prompting Moscow to prolong its food embargo for another year.

On Thursday, Russian officials began destroying shipments of banned food produced in the European Union. A relevant decree was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin last week.

The food products under the Russian embargo include meat, poultry, fish, seafood, dairy products, fruit and vegetables.

According to a recent study by the Austrian Institute of Economic Research, the European Union could lose up to $114 billion as a result of anti-Russia sanctions and the food ban that Russia has introduced in response to the restrictive measures.