MOSCOW — Russia could cut poultry and pork import quotas by hundreds of thousands of tons, the country’s agriculture minister said yesterday. The move could hit American producers hard and comes amid heightened tensions between Moscow and Washington over the war in ex-Soviet Georgia.

“It is time to change the quota regime and reduce imports, which have unfortunately built up in recent years,” Alexei Gordeyev told reporters, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.

He said domestic producers could make up the shortfall if imports were reduced.

Any substantial cuts would likely have a significant impact on American poultry producers, for whom Russia is the biggest market. Russians sometimes refer to American poultry imports as “Bush’s legs,” a reference to the frozen chicken shipped to Russia amid economic troubles following the 1991 Soviet collapse, when the current American president’s father was in office.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Putin backed proposals to freeze some of the agreements — particularly in agriculture — relating to its efforts to join the 153-member World Trade Organization. Officials claim Moscow agreed to certain conditions with member countries in return for their help in fast-tracking Russia’s entry.

[In related news, Turkey protested to Russia over trade restrictions after trucks were held up at customs posts, hurting exports to Turkey’s biggest trading partner, Bloomberg News reported yesterday.

Russian customs inspections, which previously took a few hours, are delaying the entry of Turkish trucks for as long as 20 days, an official at Turkey’s Trade Ministry said on condition of anonymity. The ministry estimates Turkey could lose as much as $3 billion in exports if the curbs continue, and has sought an explanation from the Russian government, he said.]