A Russian Foreign Ministry official said the European Union is putting pressure on third countries over the issue of exports of products to Russia for "purely commercial reasons."
“Obviously, having become unable to export their food to Russia, the European Union nevertheless has no intention of leaving its niche in the promising Russian market to third countries,” Russian Foreign Ministry official Alexander Lukashevich told reporters on Aug. 21.
Lukashevich said that “the calls for the unification of the world community on the issue of Ukraine and the far-fetched arguments in the sphere of international law are clearly motivated by Brussels’ commercial reasons, its wish to practically reserve its share of the Russian market for itself and prevent competition from other suppliers.”
“Apparently, Brussels has nothing to offer its agricultural manufacturers in terms of real compensation for their losses and therefore has to demonstrate its care for them in such a clumsy way,” Lukashevich said.
Lukashevich said that “third countries to which the EU is appealing are capable of deciding how to behave in this situation, which gives their enterprises new opportunities to expand their export geography, including by increasing their share in the Russian market.”
“In Brussels, where they like to speak about freedom of competition in trade and economic relations, they would hardly refuse such prospects,” the Russian Foreign Ministry official said.
Lukashevich recalled that Russia, for its part, intends to actively work on the expansion of its trade and economic relations with its partners, primarily in Asia and Latin America, and appreciates their readiness for it.
