Russian President, Vladimir Putin has led a strong stance against biotech and their cultivation of GM crops in his country. Now, the Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Arkady Dvorkovich, has announced at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that Russia WILL NOT use GM crops to boost agricultural production.
Dvorkovich stated that the good quality of the soil across Russia’s land will allow the country to use other technological advances in agriculture, but GMOs won’t be one of them.
“Russia has chosen a different path. We will not use these [GM] technologies,” he said.
Due to Russia refusing GM seed, Russian products will be “one of the cleanest in the world,” according to Dvorkovich.
This proves that Putin wasn’t blowing hot air when he stated that Russia must protect its citizens from over-consumption of products containing genetically modified organisms in 2014.
Putin believes that he can keep GMOs out of the country, even while staying in compliance with the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) commandments. In a meeting addressing the members of the Board of the Russian Federation Council he stated:
“We need to properly construct our work so that it is not contrary to our obligations under the WTO. But even with this in mind, we nevertheless have legitimate methods and instruments to protect our own market, and above all citizens.”
Arkady Dvorkovich
The VP of Russia’s National Association for Genetic Safety, Irina Ermakova, has said:
“It is necessary to ban GMOs, to impose moratorium (on) it for 10 years. While GMOs will be prohibited, we can plan experiments, tests, or maybe even new methods of research could be developed. It has been proven that not only in Russia, but also in many other countries in the world, GMOs are dangerous. Methods of obtaining the GMOs are not perfect, therefore, at this stage, all GMOs are dangerous. Consumption and use of GMOs obtained in such way can lead to tumors, cancers and obesity among animals. Bio-technologies certainly should be developed, but GMOs should be stopped. We should stop it from spreading. ”
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