Russian government denies banning Ukrainian import

Russia made no decision to regulate imports from Ukraine at the governmental level, the government's press service said Thursday. The Russian government is concerned with the situation on the Russian-Ukrainian border where the Russian customs put a gate down for the Ukrainian suppliers, said the government's press service. "The government is concerned with the existing situation (at the border) because this impacts trade and economic ties. But this is the decision of the customs bodies," it added. On Wednesday, the Ukrainian Federation of Employers said that the Russian customs service has listed all Ukrainian importers as "unreliable suppliers," which essentially blocked the export of Ukrainian goods to Russia. Ukraine said its losses from Russia's actions could reach up to 2.5 billion U.S. dollars till the end of 2013. According to the Russian government daily newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Ukrainian exports to Russia for the second half of 2013 have been estimated at 8.5 billion dollars. Kiev claims the problems in trade with Russia are related to the formation of the Customs Union (CU), which currently comprises Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. "There are certain difficulties now related firstly, we believe, to the formation, structuring and formalization of the Customs Union. We have started to have differences in approaches," Ukrainian Prime Minster Mykola Azarov told reporters in his country. Still, Azarov said the problems "should not be blown out of proportion or artificially exaggerated."