Russia denies political motives

MOSCOW – Dutch flowers represent a sanitary “threat” to Russia and could be banned, the Russian agricultural safety regulator said July 21. The agency said in a statement that a ban on flower deliveries from the Netherlands – a country that takes pride in its tulips – was “highly probable.” The move came as Moscow’s relations with The Hague have reached a low point. Russian officials denied, however, that it was politically motivated or aimed at punishing the Netherlands for joining in European sanctions or for identifying Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine as the principal suspects in its investigation of the MH17 airline shootdown a year ago. “This is not an agenda for the Kremlin,” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked whether there was a link between the possible ban on imports of Dutch tulips and the Dutch initiative to form an international tribunal at the United Nations to prosecute those responsible for the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in Ukraine. ”I am not a supporter of politicizing this somehow,” Mr. Peskov said. The Netherlands has been leading an international investigation into the incident that has identified pro-Russian rebels armed with Russian-made missiles as the likely culprits. Russia has staunchly opposed the creation of a United Nations tribunal to adjudicate the matter, as the Netherlands has proposed, and has denied any involvement in the incident. Rosselkhoznadzor, the Russian Agriculture Ministry, said Dutch flowers could be banned because the harmful organisms they contain “pose a serious threat to the country’s economy and agricultural production.” Any ban likely would cause millions of dollars in losses for Dutch tulip growers. The Netherlands is the world’s biggest flower exporter, with 10 billion Dutch tulip bulbs produced every year – 70 percent of total world yield. (RFE/RL with reporting by Agence France-Presse, Interfax and TASS)