(Source: http://www.m24.ru/articles/61383?attempt=1)

Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance decided to ban the supplies of plant products from Albania on December 8. According to TASS, this was reported by the Head of department, Sergei Dankvert.

“Albania has been used as a cover country for supplies of products from the European Union via Belarus and “false transit” to Kazakhstan” - Dankvert said. He specified that the decision has been taken as a result of collaboration with the Albanian side. The work allowed to disclose the company that printed fake Albanian phytosanitary certificates at the printing-house in the Czech Republic, as the agency interlocutor stressed.  At that, fake certificates were not detected at the Belarusian border, Dankvert complained. However, the Albanian side did not provide the information on production volumes of fruits and vegetables requested by Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance.

Such data are necessary for matching the increased volume of supplies to Russia with the real capabilities of the producer, the Head of the department explained. He also added that the agency would also consider the situation with the illegal export of products from the EU through Macedonia, Bosnia and Switzerland.

The issue of “cover countries” for delivery of banned European production was thrown into sharp relief after the introduction of Russian response measures expressed by food embargo on August 7, 2014. Albania, Macedonia, Bosnia and Switzerland are not members of the European Union, and the supplies of food from the latter are limited as a result of Russian sanctions. The food sanctions regime was introduced in Russia for a number of Western countries on August 7.

On the same day a list of products banned for transportation was published. The restrictions affected the products of the United States, European Union, Canada, Australia and Norway. In October the Head of Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance Sergei Dankvert warned people against possible limitation of the flow of transit goods from Belarus in order to avoid re-export. Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary already suspects Ukraine of re-export of prohibited goods from the EU. Six phytosanitary offices of the agency operate on the Russian border.