The occupier of the Kremlin continues its strategy of pressuring Western countries over raw materials while several regions of the world are threatened with famine.
Given the risks of food insecurity or even outright famine that the war in Ukraine poses for certain countries, particularly in Africa, Russia is playing appeasement. At least superficially: Russia wants to have the sanctions relaxed in exchange for grain exports.
Vladimir Putin therefore called on Tuesday evening to lift Western restrictions on Russian grain in order to make progress on the export of Ukrainian agricultural products, which are currently blocked in the country because of the Kremlin offensive.
“We will facilitate the export of Ukrainian grain, but on the basis that all restrictions related to air shipments for the export of Russian grain will be lifted,” the Russian president said after talks in Tehran.
“We had agreed on this point with the international organizations from the beginning. But nobody took the responsibility to complete all this, including our American partners,” he continued, pointing the finger at the West.
The example of fertilizer
“Restrictions on Russian fertilizer supplies to the world market have been practically lifted by the Americans,” Putin said. Indeed, according to several American media outlets, the United States has urged international traders to increase their Russian fertilizer shipments despite official sanctions still in place. Anything to boost agricultural production.
“If you seriously want to improve the situation on world food markets, I hope that the same will apply to Russian grain exports,” Vladimir Putin said.
Earlier in the day, the Kremlin chief mentioned progress in negotiations on grain exports from Ukraine across the Black Sea and thanked his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan for “mediating” the dossier. The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Friday that a “final document” would be ready shortly, which would allow the export of grain from Ukraine.
Asked about France 2 this Wednesday morning, French Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty Marc Fesneau stated the French executive’s intention not to give in to Moscow’s threats.
If we have a grain problem today, it’s because we no longer ship grain from the port of Odessa. Vladimir Putin is responsible for circulating grain: let’s not reverse roles and make grain an object of blackmail.”
Ukraine is one of the main producers of wheat, corn and sunflower. 20-25 million tons are stuck in the country and that number could triple by autumn before these stocks, hampered by the lockdown of Black Sea ports and Odessa in particular, rot if nothing is done.