Russia’s chief sanitary doctor blames unprofessional persons for “wines war”

The chief sanitary doctor of the Russian Federation, Ghenadi Oniscenko states that Russia’s “wines war” with Moldova and Georgia is the fault of “the unprofessional persons neglect rules of the markets with centuries-old traditions in these countries”. At the same time, Oniscenko, quoted by the Russian press states that the embargo applied to the import of Moldovan and Georgian wine on the Russian market was justified and allowed protecting the Russian consumers from “troubles”. “On a considerable segment of the Russian market deliveries of replicas and fake products were halted, products which in the best case were cheap wines sold as high quality brands. A great part of it was colored with different unidentified brands of spirit”, Oniscenko says. According to him, the low quality of this production was proved not only in the Russian laboratories but also in the foreign ones, which expertise is impartial. “We consider we served a noble cause – health of our citizens”, Oniscenko declared. He also regrets the fact that the rules of the market negatively affected the old traditions of the wine producing area of the Republic of Moldova and Georgia. “We are sorry that these valuable traditions, I say it without irony and sarcasm, were pushed to absurd limits by unprofessional persons who think only their profit”. We must overcome this situation”, the Russian official also declared. Previously the same source was mentioning in the same context that Moldovan wine producers will say him later a “professional thank you”. Russia halted on March 27, 2006 the imports of wines and cognac like beverages from Moldova and Georgia on the ground that the wines were containing noxious substances which are prohibited in the Russian Federation.