"I think Moldovan winemakers should know that the first batches of their product could have entered the Russian market in June-July, when relevant authorizations were given," Gennady Onishchenko said.
"However, the country's leadership was unhappy with the situation, probably because certain high-ranking officials in the country had not finished repartitioning Moldova's domestic wine market in their favor," he said.
Onishchenko said the situation was still far from completely settled.
Russia's consumer rights regulator, Rospotrebnadzor, allowed 15 Moldovan winemakers in mid-October to resume exports to Russia, earlier suspended over what Moscow called "quality problems."
The move became possible after the watchdog agreed in August to lift its ban on several Moldovan wine companies.
Russia, which previously imported 80% of all wine produced in Moldova, imposed the embargo in March, 2006. The ban dealt a severe blow to the small, impoverished ex-Soviet nation's economy, bringing many winemaking enterprises close to bankruptcy.
Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin arrived in Moscow in June to focus on the embargo issue among others, saying his country had met all the demands put forward by Russian food safety regulators, introducing a rigorous quality-control and certification system for wines and liquors sold both domestically and abroad.
However, many experts say imposing the embargo was a politically motivated decision. Relations between Russia and Moldova have been strained over Transdnestr, a breakaway republic in Moldova with an ethnic Russian majority, which proclaimed its independence from Moldova after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
