Battle for respect – Newspaper Kommersant No. 179 (7380) of 09/28/2022

On September 27, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting on the interim results of peaceful (and not mine, for example) field work in the country. Special Correspondent “Kommersant” Andrey Kolesnikov notes that the President of Russia found something to be proud of.

At the beginning of the meeting, the Russian president said that “according to operational data, the minister will now report that this year’s harvest promises to be worthy, in some components – simply a record.”

That is, in the RSFSR in 1978, 127 million tons (grain.— “b”), and it turned out to be a record harvest for the republic, and in Russia in 2017 – 135.5 million tons, and this was also a record. Now the calculation is for 150 million tons.

Then Vladimir Putin focused on the problem of exporting the extracted grain.

“Sanctions against Russia threaten to turn into a further deterioration of the situation, a global food crisis, to which the world has been heading for several years,” he said. “This is completely unrelated to Russia’s special military operation in the Donbass!

Some leading countries have built their finance and food policies in such a way that we are seeing the result that we have today. And the responsibility for it, of course, lies entirely with the so-called collective West.

Some countries are primarily, of course, the United States of America.

The day before, Vladimir Putin added another punctuation mark, and it seems to be a comma rather than an exclamation mark, for example, in the story that started his cold war with the United States. He is known to have signed a decree on providing Russian citizenship to Edward Snowden. Yes, it all started with him. And it all kind of happened by accident. Edward Snowden flew into Russia for a couple of hours in transit (in June 2013.— “b”), he had a ticket to one, but still the other end, but for some reason they were in no hurry to accept it. He stalled at Sheremetyevo. In the end, he turned out to be of no use to anyone except the United States. And suddenly, one might say, against his will, Mr. Putin was faced with a moral choice: to extradite or not to extradite? And consider that a colleague. Of course, he didn’t. And he knew what he was doing. And for this he was already predictably not forgiven. And then everything else began.

But the trigger, when Mr. Putin decided everything for himself, was pressed precisely then. Relations began to deteriorate rapidly and confidently.

And if Edward Snowden managed to jump out of the Russian transit zone; if the United States had waited for him to fly; if they had lured him out without flaring up, maybe everything would have gone differently. Or not.

And now, at a meeting to prepare for the autumn field work, which today was too reminiscent of military field work, Vladimir Putin simply bathed in an analysis of the state of food security in the United States:

– Let’s see! The cost of food on the world market has returned to the levels of the beginning of the year, but at the same time it is 40% higher than in 2020. And this is a direct consequence, without any exaggeration, of the predatory policy of the richest countries in the world, which continue to actively buy food, using, among other things, the emissions that they constantly carry out.

Vladimir Putin has said this more than once, but now he illustrated one of his favorite theses with what he sees as the rapidly aggravating situation in the United States:

– For example, in the second quarter of this year, food imports to the United States in annual terms reached $218.6 billion against $185.1 billion a year earlier. At the same time, what is important, the volume of American imports exceeds exports by $22.3 billion. And in previous years, exports exceeded imports, that is, today the United States imports more food from world markets than it sells!

But this, of course, is not all:

— Grain from Ukraine continues to go past the poorest countries. We talk about it, we talk – all in vain, no one just hears! As of September 23, out of 203 ships that left Ukrainian ports, only four went to the poorest countries under the United Nations program. And of the 46 ships sent from Monday to Friday last week, 14 indicated as the country of destination, the intermediary country, Turkey, and of the remaining 32 ships, 25 were sent to the European Union. Are they the poorest countries, or what? The situation is not changing here. Solid, just uncomfortable to say, but this is a complete swindle, and nothing more!

At the UN General Assembly, the leaders of several EU countries and Ukraine, in particular its foreign minister, argued that this was not the case and that two-thirds of Ukrainian grain actually goes to the poorest countries, simply through European ports, but the Russian president has other data .

“I repeat,” Vladimir Putin added, “the West is provoking a global food crisis. Under these conditions, as part of our strategy for the development of agriculture, we must ensure our food security, reduce dependence on imported supplies, including equipment, machinery, and seeds.

This dependence, however, is falling: sanctions reduce it very effectively.

The governors of the richest districts, having sorted out relations on the battlefields for the harvest, now competed over who could better thank Mr. Putin for this harvest.

“First of all, let me thank you, Vladimir Vladimirovich, the Russian government for solving the issue of stabilizing prices for fuels and lubricants and mineral fertilizers,” Governor of the Krasnodar Territory Veniamin Kondratyev spoke, “during the spring field work and spring sowing campaign, because, probably, stability is important for farmers, confidence in the future is important!

For the rest, not so much.

“Such measures to support the government under your leadership,” continued the governor of the Krasnodar Territory without fail, “of course, allowed us to achieve the results that we have today. And also thank you for the unprecedented measures of state support in the amount of 4.8 billion rubles, which will allow the farmers of the Kuban to achieve even better results! Our farmers were provided with literally everything they needed, so they carried out spring field work with high quality!

However, listening to him was a pleasure not only for Vladimir Putin. After all, the news from the fields is really encouraging:

– This allowed the Krasnodar Territory to get, of course, a very high harvest! Mr. Kondratiev continued. “Today, the region has harvested 13.4 million tons of cereals, legumes, rice, of which 10.7 million tons are wheat. This, of course, is a record harvest. It is probably the most record-breaking in the history of the Kuban! At the same time, it is very important to note here that 90% is high-food grain of the third and fourth classes. This has never happened before! There was a large quantity, but the quality, of course, was a little behind, and today we are talking about both quantity and quality!

Further, in theory, the choir of the Kuban Cossacks enters.

One could also quote the governor of the Stavropol Territory Vladimir Vladimirov, as well as the Rostov Region Vasily Golubev, but, by God, there is no need: they spoke about the same thing and in the same victorious tones.

And the news from the fields was more encouraging than reports from the front.

“Despite a certain decrease in the pace of foreign trade due to sanctions pressure,” said the Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation Dmitry Patrushev, “we are increasing grain supplies to the countries of the Middle East and Africa!”

So they will grow in Russia. Not Ukraine.

– What would you like to say in conclusion? Vladimir Putin asked himself. “Of course, today, in the context of the special military operation (SVO) and referendums in the Donbass, saving people in all territories, namely saving people in all territories where this referendum is being held, all this is at the forefront and is the center of attention of our entire society, the entire country. This is natural, because it is also associated with dramatic events.

That is, now the President of Russia spoke directly, presumably, about why the referendums were forced to start: that if you do not take immediate political action, then you can not save and abandon your own as a result of hostilities. So, as someone was not saved after the counteroffensive of the armed forces of Ukraine in the Kharkiv region.

However, it is possible that Vladimir Putin had in mind a more general situation, when the entire NVO is one big rescue operation. And the main thing here at some point becomes that the rescue of drowning people does not become the work of the drowning people themselves. And also the salvation of the rescuers is the work of the saved and the survivors themselves.

“A well-known, simple and fundamental law that fits into a very simple and well-known phrase “bread is the head of everything”, this law has not been repealed by anyone,” said Mr. Putin. “And, perhaps, in the conditions in which we live now, this law is one of the most important, taking into account what else is happening in the world in the food markets. Therefore, I express my gratitude for what has been done so far!

Probably, all the last time Vladimir Putin really wanted to finally thank someone for something.

But there was simply no one at all and for nothing.