1st LD Writethru: Russia to extend anti-sanction measures for one year

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Wednesday that Russian anti-sanction measures against Western countries would be extended for one year.

"We are prolonging our response measures by one year, beginning from today (Wednesday)," Putin said at a government meeting.

"The prime minister (Dmitry Medvedev) wrote a letter to me asking to prolong the countermeasures we took to the anti-Russian sanctions imposed by some countries," Putin said.

"In accordance with this letter, I have signed a decree today prolonging some special economic measures to ensure Russia's security, and I am asking the government to promptly prepare and issue the decree," Interfax quoted the president as saying.

The European Union announced Monday that it has decided to extend economic sanctions against Russia to Jan. 31, 2016, to ensure Moscow's full implementation of the Minsk agreement reached in February on the Ukraine crisis.

The restrictive measures, introduced in response to Russia's alleged role in the Ukraine crisis, were imposed in July 2014 and reinforced in September of the same year.

The sanctions targeted certain exchanges with Russia in the financial, energy and defense sectors and dual-use goods.

In August 2014, Moscow imposed a year-long embargo on food imports from Western countries in response to EU and U.S. sanctions.

Moscow has repeatedly denied the accusations over the Ukraine crisis, stressing that Western sanctions are counterproductive. Endi