Putin: The grain lanes shouldn’t be used for military purposes

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday he could soon revive a Black Sea grain deal that the United Nations says has helped ease the food crisis by bringing Ukrainian grain to market.

Russia withdrew from the deal in July, a year after it was brokered by the United Nations and Türkiye, saying at the time that its food and fertilizer exports were being hampered.

Erdogan has previously played an important role in persuading Russian President Vladimir Putin to abide by the agreement, and he is now trying, alongside the United Nations, to persuade him to return to this agreement.

“From Türkiye’s point of view, we see that we will reach a solution that meets expectations in a short period,” Erdogan added, after his first meeting with Putin since 2022 in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Erdogan said that everyone knows Russia’s aspirations well and that the shortcomings of the agreement must be eliminated, adding that Türkiye and the United Nations have worked on a new package of proposals to calm Russian concerns.

Putin said that his country may return to the grain agreement if the West adheres to what was stated in a separate memorandum concluded with the United Nations at the same time to facilitate the export of Russian food and fertilizers.

Putin added that Russia may return to the agreement if the West removes obstacles preventing Russian agricultural products from reaching global markets.

“We’ll be ready to consider the possibility of reviving the grain deal, and I told the Turkish president again today, we will do it once all the agreements on lifting restrictions on the export of Russian agricultural products are fully implemented,” Putin said.

He pointed out that Western accusations that Russia caused a food crisis after its withdrawal from the grain agreement are incorrect because prices didn’t rise after this step.

“There is no appreciable shortage of food,” Putin said.

Although Russian food and fertilizer exports are not subject to sanctions imposed by the West after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as Moscow’s announcement of exporting record quantities of wheat last year, Russia and agricultural exporters say restrictions on payments, means of supply and insurance are hampering those exports.

“The West continues to prevent the supply of grain and fertilizers from the Russian Federation to world markets,” Putin said, adding that the West had deceived Russia over the agreement because rich countries got more than 70% of the grain exported under the agreement.

Russia and Ukraine are among the most important producers of agricultural crops in the world, and they play a major role in the markets of wheat, barley, corn, rapeseed, rapeseed oil, sunflower seeds and sunflower oil.

Putin said Russia expected its grain harvest to reach 130 million tons this year and 60 million tons of it could be exported.

On Thursday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he had sent a set of concrete proposals to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov aimed at reviving the deal.

Among Moscow’s main demands is to reconnect the Agricultural Bank of Russia to the global payments system SWIFT.

The European Union severed this link in June 2022 as part of the harsh sanctions it imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

Putin said the plan to send 1 million tons of Russian grain to Türkiye at reduced prices for processing in Turkish factories and shipment to countries most in need wasn’t an alternative to the grain deal.

He added that Russia is in the process of concluding an agreement to supply Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, the Central African Republic and Eritrea with up to 50,000 tons of grain each for free.