Russia Takes Some EU, US food Products out of Blacklist

Russia has decided to exclude some of the food products on which it imposed a ban earlier in August, a decree published on the government's website shows.

Lactose-free milk, potatoes, small salmons and trouts for breeding-pools, potato and onion seedlings, hybrid sugar corn and peas, and also biologically active supplements.

The document, bearing the signature of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, partially eases restrictions introduced on August 7 in response to the sanctions that the EU and the US imposed on Russia over the Ukraine crisis.

The ban also included Australia, Canada and Norway.

Some of the exemptions follow a letter from the Consumer Protection Society in which the organization demanded that certain product be removed from the list to the benefit of sportsmen and citizens having lactose and gluten intolerance or suffering from diabetes.

Reports quoted by various media outlets meanwhile revealed Belarus had dropped a ban on cattle imports from the EU.

Belarus is planning to increase its food exports to Russia by 15 to 40 percent this year, but authorities rule out that the restrictions could have been scrapped for that purpose, citing a decreased risk of the Schmallenberg virus to be behind the move.