Moldova in talks with Russia to understand Russian wine ban
CHISINAU. Sept 11 (Interfax) - Moldova is studying Russian consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor's ban on Moldovan wine imports, Moldovan government spokesperson Liliana Vitu told Interfax on Tuesday evening.
"The government remains in touch with Russian officials. The dialogue will be continued until the essence of complaints about the quality of Moldovan wines is understood. The government will make an official statement after it studies all circumstances of the situation," Vitu said.
Deputy Prime Minister and Economics Minister Valeriu Lazar told Interfax that, "the ministries of economy and agriculture are examining the situation to form an objective picture of what is going on."
"The Russian ban on Moldovan wines is not quite clear to me. It's important for me to understand where technical aspects of the problem end and politics begin," he said.
Meanwhile, the director of the National Center for Controlling Wine Quality, Rodica Struza, told Publica television that "claims suggesting that Moldovan wines are of poor quality are unfounded."
"We checked all batches of wine sent to Russia, especially over the past few days. We did not find any flaws. Claims that the content of some substances exceeds the permissible limit 70-80 times over arouse surprise," she said.
Moldovan experts think that the ban is "politically motivated," she added.
"Moldovan wines have complied with quality standards for many months until September and all of a sudden the quality dropped below the standard level. This is impossible. It is a clearly political decision reflecting Moldova's evolving relations with the European Union. Unfortunately, the Moldovan authorities have not drawn lessons from a similar situation in 2006. But even though Russia has demonstrated unfriendliness, the problem must be tackled in negotiations," said economic expert Viorel Civriga.
Rospotrebnadzor head Gennady Onishchenko said on Tuesday evening that Russia had completely banned imports of Moldovan wine and cognac, earlier reports said.