Onishenko recognizes wine ban depends on Moldova's political decisions
Suspension of Moldovan wine exports to the Russian Federation depends on Moldova's political decisions, Gennady Onishenko - the Head of the RosPotrebNadzor [Russian federal supervisory agency for consumer goods quality] and Russia's Chief Federal Sanitary Inspector - stated at a news conference dedicated to the launching of a massive action called "Health Wave".
He stated in particular that "the kinks the Moldovan leadership makes are absolutely inappropriate".
Previously, Gennady Onishenko dismissed whatever political background of the Moldovan wine import suspension, stressing that the problem was exclusively in the poor quality of certain wine consignments.
Moldovan Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Valeriu Cosarciuc dispelled all claims to the Moldovan wine quality, "the more so that RosPotrebNadzor has not submitted any documentary proofs".
Most politicians and profiled experts, including Russian ones, presume that the true reason for this new prohibition of Moldovan wine exports to Russia was the so-called Ghimpu decree: last month, Moldova's acting president Mihai Ghimpu issued the presidential decree declaring that since now on, June 28 shall be marked annually in Moldova as a Day of Soviet occupation. [For several decades until Moldova's independence declaration in 1991, the date of June 28, 1940 used to be marked as the Day of Moldova's "reunification with the Soviet Motherland"]. Furthermore, the Ghimpu decree contained a demand that Russia must pull out its military and weapons from Moldova's Transnistrian region.
Chisinau's analogous demand in 2006 led to a long and very painful embargo on Moldovan wine exports to Russia. This time, activists of the ruling Yedinaya Rossiya [United Russia] party have already announced an intention to unfold a nation-wide campaign of boycotting Moldovan wines.
On Wednesday, Moldovan Prime Minister Vlad Filat stated to the press in Chisinau that he is going to meet with his Russian colleague [and Yedinaya Rossiya chairman] Vladimir Putin to discuss the wine problem. Filat did not mention a concrete date, saying only the meeting should take place soon.
Filat stated he does not believe that the wine negotiations with Russia at the level of experts have stopped: "The first round of talks was completed, and currently a process of discussions is in full swing. I think that in the nearest future we will overcome this problem, which is a purely technical one".
Infotag
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