Bulgaria should be major wine supplier to Russia, official says

MOSCOW, May 17 (RIA Novosti) - The head of Russia's government staff Wednesday called on Bulgarian wine exporters to fill the niche on Russian markets created by a recent import ban on Georgian and Moldovan wines.

"Bulgaria mainly exports wine and wine products to Russia, as well as perfume and medicine," Sergei Naryshkin said. "Russia is making efforts to increase the quality of these products on its market, and now a niche is opening up for high-quality Bulgarian wine products on the Russian market."

Russia suspended imports of Moldovan and Georgian wine March 27 following hygiene concerns raised by chief doctor Gennady Onishchenko, who said the wines failed to meet numerous health and safety regulations.

With bootlegging a lucrative underground industry in Russia, health officials conducted a series of raids on shops in Moscow in an effort to weed out poor-quality wines purporting to be prized labels from both Georgia and Moldova, whose relations with Russia have deteriorated over a number of issues in recent months.