Russia on Wednesday announced sanctions targeting food exports from the European Union and the US, in a move the EU has described as "clearly politically motivated".
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday announced counter-sanctions against Western nations with a year-long import ban on a variety of agricultural products and foodstuffs.
The move targets all countries that have taken punitive measures against Moscow, meaning Spain will be affected.
According to the Kremlin, food products will be directly targeted by
the ban. The Kremlin’s statement said that Putin's executive decree
"either bans or limits... the import into the Russian Federation of
certain kinds of agricultural products, raw materials and food
originating from countries that have decided to adopt economic sanctions
against Russian entities and (or) individuals".
Russia will reportedly publish a full list of banned products by
Thursday evening but sources have reported that the list will include
all fruits and vegetables produced in the 28 EU nations. According to
Reuters, Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev said meat, fish and dairy would also
be banned.
The sanctions are the first
official reprisal by Putin in response to the crisis in Ukraine. The EU
and US have accused Moscow of destabilizing the situation in the country
by supporting separatists in Donetsk and Lugansk.
The EU on Friday said it regretted "the announcement by the Russian
Federation of measures which will target imports of food and
agricultural products."
"We underline that
the European Union's restrictive measures are directly linked with the
illegal annexation of Crimea and destabilization of Ukraine," said the
EU in a statement.
The 28-member bloc said it was committed to the de-escalation of the situation in Ukraine.
Spanish trade with Russia has boomed in recent years.
According to figures from the Spain's Embassy in Russia, bilateral
trade with Russia was worth €11 billion ($14.7 million) in 2013.That was 37 percent up on 2010 figures, and 18 percent up on the number in 2012.
Russian sanctions could hurt this strong relationship and could have a knock-on effect on Russian tourism in Spain.
Some 1,581,785 Russian tourists visited Spain in 2013, up 31.6 percent on 2012, according to figures from Spain's official tourism research centre Frontur.
Russian tourists also boosted spending by the greatest margin, boosting expenditure by 29 percent to €2.35 billion in 2013, accounting for four percent of total tourism spend, figures from the country's Industry, Energy and Tourism ministry show.
