UPDATE: Official: Russia waiting for upcoming lifting of sanctions

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MOSCOW, Jan 13 (PRIME) -- The Russian government must presume in its work that the Western sanctions and the countermeasures, such as a prohibition on food imports, could soon be abolished, First Deputy Prime Miister Igor Shuvalov said at the Gaidar forum on Friday.

“Maybe, it’s time we understand that the sanctions or countersanctions will soon be abolished. Anyway, in my work, the agriculture minister, the economic development minister and I will most probably need to presume that the countersanctions will be abolished. Even if this does not happen, that will present a different goal to us,” Shuvalov said.

In 2014, Russia banned food imports from the countries which introduced sanctions against it over the situation in Ukraine.

“We will see how the political agenda will develop. A new U.S. administration will soon appear, it will depend on how they will develop dialogue, the U.S. and the E.C., how they will talk to us,” Shuvalov said.

“You know the position of our president – we are always as much ready for the dialogue as our partners are ready.”

Aide to the head of the Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary Oversight Service Alexei Alekseyenko said that Russia cannot automatically return to the pre-sanctions list of importers once the food imports embargo is lifted.

“This will be tough because much time has passed and many changes occurred during this period. There will be no automatic return to the previous list of suppliers which existed before the introduction of our economic retaliation,” Alekseyenko said.

He said that Russia will have to evaluate the safety of products once again, while funding for checks of foreign firms has been reduced.

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