Russia not to blame for global food crisis – Putin
Russia is ready to aid in transporting Ukrainian grain but the western sanctions make it impossible, the Russian president has said
Restrictions imposed by the US and its allies against Russia and Belarus will only exacerbate the looming global food crisis by affecting fertilizer trade and sending the food prices further up, Russian President Vladimir Putin says.
In a special TV interview on Friday evening, following a meeting with African leaders in Sochi, Putin accused Western leaders of trying "to shift the responsibility for what is happening in the world food market."
The root causes of the crisis lie with the US financial policies during the Covid-19 pandemic and Europe's over-reliance on renewables and short-term gas contracts, which have led to price hikes and rising inflation, Putin has said.
The unfavorable situation on the world's food market did not begin to take shape yesterday, or even from the moment Russia launched the special military operation in the Donbass and Ukraine.
"It began to take shape as early as February 2020 in the process of combating the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic," he added.
High gas prices, which came as a result of under-investment in the traditional energy sector, have forced many fertilizer producers to shut down their businesses because of unprofitability, the Russian president has argued. Such developments have shrunk the fertilizer supply, which, in turn, has sent the food prices up, he added.
Yet, instead of making some real steps to remedy the situation, the western nations just pin the blame on Moscow, Putin has said. The Russian president has dismissed all claims that Moscow is preventing the Ukrainian grain from being exported to other nations as a “bluff.” He has also said that Russia is ready to increase its own grain export up to 50 million tons.
Putin has pointed to the fact that there are several ways to safely transport the grain from the Ukrainian territory, including through Poland and Hungary. He has also said that the Russian forces are about to finish demining the areas of the Black Sea it controls to facilitate safe transfer of goods through the Azov and Black Seas.
The Russian leader has also called the Belarus transport route “the cheapest way” of making the Ukrainian grain reach the customers around the world. Yet, using it would require western nations to lift sanctions they imposed against Minsk, he has added.
Earlier on Friday, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has told the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres that Belarus is ready to transport the Ukrainian grain to the European ports by rail but it would require those ports to be able to accept wares from Belarus, which is currently impossible because of sanctions.
“To create the conditions for the transit of the Ukrainian grain, the ports that would serve as shipping points should be able to load and unload Belarusian goods,” Lukashenko has said.
Guterres, in turn, has said that he would discuss the issue with the leaders of the relevant nations in the coming days.
https://www.rt.com/russia/556586-putin-interview-food-crisis/