Russia on Friday further relaxed trade sanctions placed on Turkey in the aftermath of the downing of a Russian fighter jet in 2015. In a statement, the government said Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev had signed a decree lifting the ban on some agricultural produce and Turkish companies involved in construction, engineering and tourism.

The development is the latest in the lifting of sanctions imposed after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane that had violated Turkish airspace from Syria in November 2015.

Friday's resolution removed frozen chicken and other poultry by-products as well as cucumbers, gherkins and fresh fruits from the list of blocked products, the government said. It also lifted the ban on Turkish construction, design, engineering and tourism-related companies. The decree did not mention restrictions on tomato imports from Turkey.

During a May 3 visit to Russia, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and President Vladimir Putin agreed to remove sanctions with the exception of tomatoes.

During the 25th-anniversary summit for the Organization of Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) in Istanbul on May 22, Turkey and Russia signed a joint declaration to life trade restrictions between the two countries with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım, his Russian counterpart Medvedev, Turkey's deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek and his Russian counterpart Arkady Dvorkovich who attended the ceremony.

After November 2015, Moscow took several measures against Ankara, including the banning of imported Turkish agricultural products and the ending of visa-free travel for Turks. Relations were frozen for months between the countries but relaxed in the summer of 2016 when Putin and Erdoğan began to bury the hatchet.

Eight banned items

The ban on eight products including zucchini, pumpkin, romaine lettuce, iceberg lettuce, eggplant, pepper, pomegranate and tomato, which has become the symbol of sanctions between the two countries, still continues. Ministerial-level talks will be held between the two countries in order to lift the ban on seven items except for tomatoes.

'Conditional' green light from Russia for tomato imports

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said only two restrictions, visa-free travel for Turkish citizens and tomatoes, remained for Turkey, reported Russian state news agency TASS on Friday.

"We will solve these issues within the framework of consultations with our Turkish counterparts on a reciprocal basis," Dvorkovich was quoted as saying by TASS. He said consultations on the seasonal admission of Turkish tomatoes to the Russian market would continue during the summer. Dvorkovich, answering journalists' questions at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), said that tomatoes might be imported from Turkey in low volumes for use in making products such as sauces and fruit juices. Noting that Turkish tomatoes with affordable prices can be used for processing, Dvorkovich said, "However, importing tomatoes in high volumes is not on our agenda."

"I think they will be going on through the summer. We can reach an agreement, but I would not expect any very high volumes of supplies; they will be rather limited," he told reporters on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

The Russian government put into effect the decision to remove all restrictions on Turkish food products, excluding tomatoes today.

Tomato ban to last at least 3 years

Russia's Agriculture Minister Aleksandr Tkachev, who took the toughest stance regarding the sanctions against Turkey and favored the continuation of the ban, said that the restrictions on Turkish tomatoes would last for at least three years. "The next three years will be decisive for the development of the tomato production sector in Russia. We have already reduced imports by almost twice, and we produce 800,000 tons of tomatoes in our country," Tkachev told Sputnik in an interview. "We have to increase our production by about 500,000 tons more. This requires three to five years depending on the market. For this reason, the return of Turkish tomatoes to our market is not in question in the near future."</s>Image copyright AFP Image caption A Moscow market: Turkey can start shipping to millions of Russian consumers again

Russia has lifted a ban on imports of Turkish food, imposed after a Russian bomber was shot down on the Syria-Turkey border in November 2015.

But Russia is keeping seasonal limits on Turkish tomatoes, to help its own producers of sauces and juices.

Before the ban, Turkey exported food to Russia worth more than €1bn (£873m; $1.1bn) annually.

Russia is also lifting a ban on Turkish workers in the construction sector, in tourism and in hotel businesses.

The food ban affected many items, including fresh Turkish cucumbers, apples, pears, grapes, strawberries and chicken and turkey offal.

Russia continues to ban imports of most Western food and drink, in retaliation for wide-ranging Western sanctions in place since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

Russia's role in the Ukraine conflict led to a tightening of Western sanctions, which also target close aides of President Vladimir Putin.

Russia's military support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad angered Turkey, which backs Sunni Arab rebels fighting to oust him.

In November 2015 a Turkish F-16 jet shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber on the Turkey-Syria border. There was a dispute over exactly what happened, and it triggered a freeze in Russian-Turkish relations.

The thaw however began after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed regret over the incident last year. President Putin's first move was to lift a Russian boycott of Turkish holiday resorts.</s>Russia has lifted trade sanctions on Turkish food products after Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree on Friday, 2 June.

The decree signed by Medvedev now allows Turkey to export food items, from tomatoes and apricots to chicken products and salt, in Moscow. "The decree of the government dated November 30, 2015 with number 1296 specified a list of agricultural products, primary produce and food originated from the Turkish Republic restricted to be supplied to Russia starting January 1, 2016.

"The signed decree removes frozen parts of carcasses, by-products of dunghill-hens and turkeys, fresh and refrigerated cucumbers and cornichons, fresh apples, peaches, grapes, wild strawberries and strawberries from the list," a document posted on the government's website said.

The development came after a meeting on 3 May between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. During the talks, the two leaders agreed on a "complex decision to lift restrictive measures in mutual trade".

The 3 May talk was followed by another meeting on 22 May between the Russian and Turkish Deputy Prime Ministers – Arkady Dvorkovich and Mehmet Simsek – in which they signed a joint statement on mutually lifting the remaining trade restrictions.

Moscow has imposed sanctions on Ankara to protest against the shooting down of a Russian warplane by Turkey's military. The plane was shot down in November 2015 when it took part in Moscow's military campaign in Syria.

The attack had claimed the life of the pilot.

Although Ankara maintained its stand, claiming it acted lawfully because the plane had came into Turkish air space, Moscow refused to accept it.

Following the incident, a number of sanctions were imposed against Turkey, including in tourism sector in which charter flights from Russia to Turkey were banned and tour firms were asked to not sell any holidays there.

However, Russia did not let the incident affect energy exports, the core of economic relation between the two nations.</s>Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed an order lifting most sanctions on agricultural imports from Turkey today.

Medvedev lifted the ban on berries, fruit, meat and poultry imports. Turkish tomatoes will remain on the embargo list.

The order followed the presidential decree lifting most employment restrictions for Turkish citizens, as well as certain restrictions on operations of Turkish companies.

Russia and Turkey agreed on lifting remaining sanctions in late May when Russian Deputy PM Arkadi Dvorkovich met Turkish Deputy PM Mehmet Simsek

Russia imposed sanctions on Turkey after it shot down a Russian military jet operating in Syria in March 2015. Two Russian soldiers died as a result of the incident.
Russia lifts more trade sanctions it had placed on Turkey following the 2015 downing of a Russian fighter jet.