Turkey imposed a ban on duty-free importation of all types of Russian agricultural products. In Ankara, this decision was explained by the desire to "protect themselves in case of problems" with one of the supplier countries. It is interesting that new bans on Russia became known two days after the signing of the document on the mutual lifting of all restrictions in trade between countries.

In the morning, on May 24, the newspaper Vedomosti wrote about the ban,. According to the publication, the Turkish authorities decided that our country will have no more than 20-25% of all issued licenses for import of wheat in the regime of internal processing, which gives the right to duty-free import of goods.

After the situation, the member of the managing council of the Union of Exporters of Istanbul Zekeriya Mete explained. According to him, such measures were taken in order to "protect themselves, if problems arise with any country".

"The decision to limit the import of all types of agricultural products from Russia at the level of 20-25% was taken by our organization, and not by the Ministry of Economics," he explained..

Commenting on the incident, the official spokesman for the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, said that Moscow and Ankara are still engaged in a dialogue on lifting the remaining restrictions in trade.

"Indeed, there are restrictions. You know that there are some restrictions on the Russian side for known reasons, which were explained in great detail to the President of Turkey during recent contacts in Sochi. There are contacts and negotiations with the Turkish side, "RIA Novosti quotes him..

At the same time, the issue of banning the supply of sun oil (rumors about this also appeared in the media), he redirected the government.

"Indeed, there are restrictions. You know that there are some restrictions on the Russian side for known reasons, which were explained in great detail to the President of Turkey during recent contacts in Sochi. There are contacts and negotiations with the Turkish side, "he said..

A couple of days ago, Turkey lost its largest buyer of tomatoes - Iraq. The authorities decided to suspend the import of tomatoes from a neighboring country to protect their own farmers, wrote Hurriyet Daily News referring to the official statement of the Turkish Ministry of Economy.

As the newspaper notes, the closure of the Iraqi market will turn into serious problems for Turkish farmers due to the fact that farmers are still unable to send goods to Russia from this country.

The stumbling block in the "tomato" issue with Russia is the unfriendly policy of the Turkish authorities in relation to Russian agricultural products. Ankara introduced increased import duties for domestic cereals, which made Russian wheat non-competing in the Turkish market.

In the government of the Russian Federation, the abolition of restrictions on the supply of tomatoes was severely tied with the cancellation of duties on Russian products.

"For us, the issue of lifting grain restrictions is unconditional. Without this, there will not be any action on our part. Without lifting the ban on grain, even the chances that we will take something off are not there, "Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich told journalists in April.