Consumer Rights Agency Restricts Exit from Russia

Consumer Rights Agency Restricts Exit from Russia
Rospotrebnadzor (Federal Service for Supervision in Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare) issued an order prohibiting educational trips of Russian schoolchildren to the U.K. The stated reason is that the U.K. is unsafe in terms of the swine flu. Rospotrebnadzor’s head Gennady Onishchenko explained that the agency may prohibit Russian tourist companies from issuing travel documents to children and request the Russian border control service to stop children groups on the border. Experts opine that restricting constitutional rights of citizens Dr. Onishchenko grossly exceeded his authority, which may qualify as criminal offence. Rospotrebnadzor and its head are notorious for imposing sanitary-grounded “sanctions” on countries having political frictions with Russia. In particular, Dr. Onishchenko has declared import bans on Moldovan wine, Georgian wine and mineral water, Latvian sprats, Byelorussian milk, and U.S. poultry.

http://kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?DocsID=1211946&NodesID=7 (Russ.)