MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's chief doctor has banned imports of Georgia's famous and popular sparkling mineral water Borjomi.
"Checks that uncovered batches of mineral water Borjomi without proper documents gave me grounds for ordering the customs service to ban imports of this mineral water into Russia," Gennady Onishchenko said Thursday.
The move comes six weeks after imports of Georgia wines were prohibited over concerns that they contained traces of pesticides and heavy metals. The ban extended to cognac and champagne days later.
Onishchenko, who heads the Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare, said the service's local branches had been instructed to seize Borjomi bottles.
He said the service had confiscated 191,000 bottles without proper documentation and pledged to find out the source of counterfeit mineral water.
Onishchenko said he had requested the Borjomi producers to share their information on fake batches discovered in Moscow.
"I had hoped the situation with [Georgian] wine would not be repeated, as it is a more civilized market, but the producers' inertia forced me to give up these hopes," he said.
Wine and mineral water are two of Georgia's biggest exports, and the March ban further strained already tense relations between Moscow and Tbilisi.
