Russia deals a serious blow to Ukrainian livestock farming
Russia has banned the transit of Ukrainian livestock products through its territory. This applies to meat from pigs, chickens and cattle.
This is stated in the instructions of Rosselkhoznadzor, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Official documents indicate that the ban was introduced due to a lack of communication between the Ukrainian and Russian veterinary departments.
“In order to reduce the risks of the spread of African swine fever, highly pathogenic avian influenza, bovine spongiform encephalopathy during the transportation of live animals and products transiting through the territory of the Russian Federation, taking into account the lack of response from the Ukrainian side to repeated requests from Rosselkhoznadzor on measures taken to prevent the spread of influenza birds, ASF and bluetongue, as well as due to violations at the border during the transit of live animals, from September 4, 2020, temporary restrictions are introduced on the transit through the territory of the Russian Federation from Ukraine of large and small ruminants, pigs, poultry, livestock products carrying the risk of spreading these diseases,” the instructions say.
As political scientist Bogdan Bezpalko said in a commentary to PolitNavigator, the ban was introduced due to Ukraine’s withdrawal from bilateral agreements with Russia, as well as the smuggling of Ukrainian goods.
“First of all, this concerns smuggling. These goods arrived as transit and were dissolved on Russian territory. In fact, all this is contraband. This at one time was also extended to the transit of Belarusian or supposedly Belarusian goods and products that were in transit, for example, to Kazakhstan. In one year, experts cited this figure, the transit of apples from Belarus to Kazakhstan increased 500 times.
At the same time, not a single apple ever reached Kazakhstan. The reason, I think, is precisely this. And the consequence is a further cooling of relations between Ukraine and Russia, only now it is no longer of an avalanche-like nature, but slower, more progressive. Ukraine is gradually withdrawing from a number of agreements, for example, it has withdrawn from a number of agreements that ensure interaction in the veterinary field, which also does not contribute to the import of food products through Russian territory,” Bezpalko said.
According to the expert, due to the ban, Ukraine may try to smuggle its goods through the territory of Belarus, but the authorities of this country bear responsibility here.
“Most likely they will try to do this through Belarus. In principle, they tried to do this before, but now everything will depend on how much Russia can force Lukashenko to close these smuggling flows,” the political scientist believes.
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