On the first day of the BRICS summit, leaders spoke to businessmen

On August 22, the 15th BRICS summit (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) started in Johannesburg. On the first day, the Business Forum was held, the participants of which were addressed by the leaders of all five states. In his speech via video link, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke of Russia’s readiness to return to the grain deal if the obligations that were given to Moscow when it was concluded were fulfilled. Now, according to Putin, Russia is being deliberately obstructed in the supply of grain and fertilizers, “hypocritically accusing it of difficulties in world markets.”

At the same time, the Russian Federation intends to remain a reliable supplier of food to Africa, as evidenced by the decision to send 25,000–50,000 tons of grain to six African countries free of charge. Earlier, the Kremlin noted that they want to reconnect Rosselkhozbank to the SWIFT payment system, facilitate the insurance of ships with grain, restore the operation of the Odessa-Tolyatti ammonia pipeline, unfreeze foreign assets and accounts of Russian companies associated with food production.

Speaking about cooperation within the BRICS, Putin said that Russia’s trade turnover with partners in this association exceeds $230 billion. Under the current conditions, Moscow intends to reorient transport and logistics flows towards reliable partners, to which the president referred all four countries of the bloc. He also announced the irreversible process of de-dollarization in settlements between the BRICS countries. At the end of his speech, Putin invited the bloc partners to the Eastern Economic Forum on September 10-13 in Vladivostok.