Russia still mulling food import ban: agency

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(Reuters) - Russia's food safety watchdog on Thursday said its spokesman's comments on threatened retaliatory bans of food imports from the United States and European Union reflected his personal views, as a list of targeted items had yet to be approved.

News agency RIA Novosti quoted the spokesman, Alexei Alekseenko, as saying all European fruit and vegetables and all produce from the United States would face a ban ordered by President Vladimir Putin to punish countries that imposed sanctions on Russia.

Bans on EU and U.S. goods would be "quite substantial", and would specifically include U.S. poultry, Alekseenko also told Reuters on Wednesday, although he declined to give a full list of banned goods.

But the watchdog, the Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance Service (VPSS), "finds it impossible to comment" on Putin's order until the government formally approves the list of products to be banned, the body, known in Russian as Rosselkhoznadzor, said in a statement on Thursday.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/07/us-ukraine-crisis-russia-watchdog-idUSKBN0G70E020140807

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Russia is imposing a "full embargo" on food imports from the EU, US and some other Western countries, in response to sanctions over Ukraine.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said it would include fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, milk and dairy imports.

Australia, Canada and Norway are also affected.

Russia is also banning Ukrainian airlines from transit across its territory, he said in televised comments to the government.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-28687172