Russia to extend western food ban

Moscow to raise military presence on disputed Kuril islands

MOSCOW, May 27, (AFP): Russia plans to extend its embargo on Western food products by a year and a half, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Friday as the European Union prepares to debate renewing sanctions against Moscow.

“I have ordered proposals to be drawn up to extend the retaliatory measures not by a year but until the end of 2017,” Medvedev said in comments released by the government. The measure, which would have to be approved by President Vladimir Putin, is aimed at boosting Russia’s agricultural sector.

Since August 2014, Moscow has banned most food imports from Western countries, particularly from the European Union, which has imposed sanctions on Russia for its 2014 annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in east Ukraine.

Russians have seen European staples such as Parmesan cheese disappear from stores -- often replaced by inferior substitutes made locally or imported from as far away as South America.

Russia extended the sanctions by a year last August, seriously affecting the livelihoods of European farmers.

The embargo was due to expire in three months.

Medvedev’s warning came as EU countries prepare to debate next month whether to extend sanctions affecting Russia’s banks and energy and defence industries that expire in July.

So far the EU has extended these sanctions every six months.

The EU’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said this month she expects the bloc to extend its sanctions once again.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Thursday however that resistance is growing within the EU to extending the sanctions, with an unanimous vote required.

The European Union says it will lift sanctions when Russia complies with the terms of a peace accord reached between

resurfaced in Russian custody — she says she was kidnapped and spirited across the border, Russians say she came in illegally. In March, she was convicted of acting as a spotter for mortar fire that killed two Russian journalists and sentenced to 22 years in a Russian prison.

Savchenko was released Wednesday after being pardoned on humanitarian grounds by Russian President Vladimir Putin — he says at the urging of the Moscow and Kiev in February 2015 on the conflict in east Ukraine that has now killed more than 9,300 people.

While the fighting has grown less intense, the death toll is still increasing due to regular breaches of the ceasefire.

The peace process has stalled over thorny issues including a requirement for the rebel-controlled regions to hold local elections.

Meanwhile, Germany said Thursday the EU was facing difficult talks on extending sanctions against Russia over the conflict in Ukraine due to the increased resistance of some member states, and denied that a new Cold War was afoot.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told the Baltic News Service (BNS) “we are aware that resistance in the EU to extending the sanctions towards Russia has increased.

Difficult

“It will be more difficult than it was last year to find a common position on this issue,” he added.

“What will be the situation at the end of the month when a decision is taken on sanctions? I don’t know,” he admitted, speaking in the Latvian capital Riga.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini told a German daily last week she expects an extension of the sanctions.

Steinmeier did not single out specific EU countries resisting continued sanctions, but Italy and Hungary have been among the most sceptical while Poland and the Baltic states have repeatedly pressed for maintaining pressure on Moscow.

Current EU sanctions on Russia’s banking, defence and energy sectors expire in July. Extending them will require a unanimous vote, and EU leaders are expected to discuss the issue next month.

Steinmeier told BNS that Germany would “work hard to ensure that Europe presents a united front on this question”, adding that penalties remain “inextricably linked” to the peace deal over eastern Ukraine.

The 2015 peace accords signed in

journalists’ relatives — and traded for two Russian military men convicted in Ukraine. She received a rapturous welcome in Kiev, lauded for her flinty defiance of the harsh Russian justice system.

At her first news conference upon her return, the 35-year-old told reporters Friday in Kiev that what she would like best is to return to her job as a military pilot. But she said she is willing to launch a political career if this could help Ukraine the Belarusian capital Minsk call for a ceasefire along with a range of political, economic and social measures to end the conflict that has claimed more than 9,300 lives since April 2014.

Ties between Russia and the West have plunged to their lowest point since the Cold War over Moscow’s 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula from Kiev, and its support for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine.

Steinmeier told BNS that the West needed to engage in dialogue with Russia to “rebuild” lost trust and tackle crises in Syria and Libya.

It was “good” that the NATO-Russia Council would meet ahead of the Warsaw summit, he added.

“We are not entering a Cold War situation because the world now is much more complex than it was in the 60s and 70s,” he said in Latvia, after an earlier stop in neighbouring Baltic state Lithuania for talks focused on NATO’s July summit in Warsaw.

“We need to find the right balance between deterrence and detente.”

Spooked by Russia’s actions, eastern European states have lobbied the US-led military alliance to increase its presence along its eastern flank.

MOSCOW:

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Russia said Friday it was taking unprecedented measures to upgrade its military presence on the fareastern Kuril islands claimed by Japan, including plans to set up a new base on an uninhabited island.

Colonel-General Sergei Surovikin, commander of the eastern military district, announced the launch of “unprecedented measures to develop military infrastructure in the area”, the defence ministry said in a statement.

He said Russia was taking the steps to “exclude the emergence of even the smallest risks.”

Russia has military bases on the Kuril Pacific archipelago, while Japan claims four of the islands in a dispute that has simmered since World War II, preventing

deal with the separatist war and snap out of political and economic turmoil.

When asked if she was willing to run for president, she replied: “Ukrainians, if you want me to become president, I will become president.” (AP)

Putin visits Greece:

Russian President Vladimir Putin made his first trip to a European Union country this year Friday the countries ever signing a peace treaty.

Soviet troops seized the four at the end of World War II just after Japan surrendered.

Surovikin listed the measures being taken as “a planned rearmament of the formations and units and boosting the level of social protection for all categories of serving soldiers and their family members.”

Russia earlier this month sent six ships from its Pacific Ocean naval fleet on an expedition to an uninhabited island in the archipelago called Matua.

Surovikin said Friday “the main aim of the expedition is to study the possibility of future basing of Pacific Fleet forces there”.

“The eastern outpost of Russia, particularly Sakhalin Island and the Kuril islands provide unconditional guarantees of security and the territorial integrity of our country,” he said.

Matua is not one of the four islands in the chain claimed by Japan and is closer to Russia.

Russian television showed army tents set up on the island as well as a cargo ship landing military vehicles.

Troops have set up a field camp and organised water and electricity supplies and communications, Surovikin said.

The uninhabited island is swathed in fog and has snow at sea level even in late May. It is dominated by a snow-topped active volcano.

Rossiya 24 television showed sappers exploding mines from World War II. It said that the island had housed a secret Japanese base and still has three airstrips and numerous fortifications.

The bullish statements come as Japan hosts a summit of the Group of Seven, which has snubbed Russia over its actions in Ukraine.

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said in March that Russia would deploy a range of coastal missile systems on the Kurils as part of increased military spending in the region.

with a visit to Greece that will include a stop at a secluded Christian Orthodox monastic sanctuary in the country’s north.

Under heavy security, Putin arrived for a two-day visit expected to focus on energy cooperation and Russian investments during talks with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

Athens is keen to maintain its traditionally close ties with post-Soviet Russia, despite its participation in European Union sanctions against Moscow, and a gas pipeline project designed to limit Russia’s regional energy dominance.

Putin was met at Athens Airport by Defense Minister Panos Kammenos as air force F-16s buzzed overhead as part of a welcoming ceremony. (AP)

S. Ossetia referendum set:

Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia will hold a referendum on joining Russia next year, its president and parliament speaker said in a statement Thursday.

The Moscow-backed region, recognised as independent by Russia since a brief war with Georgia in 2008, will hold the vote after presidential elections, the statement on the website of the regional presidency said.

President Leonid Tibilov and speaker Anatoly Bibilov said they are formally endorsing the idea of “holding the referendum on the issue of South Ossetia’s entering the Russian federation in 2017,” it said.

Tibilov was elected in April 2012 for a five-year term. The precise date for the presidential election has not been set. (AFP)