Moscow, Aug 13 - Russia will ban imports of dairy products from three Lithuanian companies, in the latest trade spat with the Baltic European Union state, Russia's animal and plant health agency said on Thursday.
Russia has angered other ex-Soviet states by imposing health-related import restrictions, in rows that have sometimes led to tit-for-tat measures.
The latest ban, which comes into force from Aug. 17, affects exports from certain plants operated by milk producers Pieno Zvaigzdes, Zemaitijos Pienas and Rokiskio pienas, a subsidiary of Lithuania's top cheese maker Rokiskio Suris.
"Lithuania has drastically increased exports of dairy products to Russia," said Alexey Alexeyenko, a spokesman for Russia's Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance.
"It looks like Lithuanian authorities have failed to control the quality of the rising exports and we have discovered the antibiotic tetracycline in some products."
The Lithuanian companies were not immediately available for comment.
Russian restrictions on meat and dairy imports from Belarus escalated into the "milk wars" -- a series of trade and diplomatic measures which ended in a truce in June.
But the Lithuanian Foreign ministry said it did not consider the milk export ban as politically motivated.
"It does not look like politics, it's something for the Lithuanian food and veterinary service to deal with," spokesman Rolandas Kacinskas said.
The Lithuanian veterinary service said on Wednesday it had followed up the Russian complaint and had traced farms with antibiotic-contaminated milk and imposed stricter controls to prevent future cases.
It has informed Russian authorities that the milk is safe.
In an earlier trade spat, Russia cut off oil supplies to a Lithuanian refinery in 2006, a move Lithuania said was motivated by Moscow's anger that the refinery had been sold to a Polish company rather than Russian investors.
Vilnius is seen by Moscow as one of its main critics inside the EU and a staunch supporter of NATO membership for ex-Soviet republics Ukraine and Georgia.