Russia may ban imports of some Ukrainian goods

Moscow may ban the supply of a number of Ukrainian goods to Russia as part of its countersanctions against Kiev, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told reporters.

"It concerns banning certain categories of goods that are produced in Ukraine for their delivery to Russia," he said when answering a question about retaliatory measures Moscow is going to take in response to Kiev’s anti-Russian sanctions.

"Our Ukrainian colleagues do not particularly stress this, but Ukraine’s trade turnover with Russia is very significant, we are talking about billions of rubles," Medvedev said.

According to him, despite all the measures Kiev took against Moscow, Russia remains the largest foreign trade partner of Ukraine, the Russian Prime Minister said.

He added that that Moscow will take into account this circumstance when taking retaliatory measures against Ukraine.

On Monday, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree imposing special economic measures in response to the anti-Russian sanctions of Ukraine. The document was published on the Kremlin’s official website.

The directive notes that this decision was made "in response to Ukraine’s unfriendly actions, which run counter to international law and involve the introduction of restrictive measures against citizens and legal entities of the Russian Federation", and also to protect national interests."

The Russian government was instructed to draw up lists of individuals and legal entities that the special economic measures are targeted at, as well as to determine "special economic measures applicable to individuals and legal entities." Under the decree, federal agencies, regional and local authorities should proceed from the fact that from the day the decree comes into force, special economic measures will be applied to those sanctioned individuals and entities.