Putin: Russia is ready to “reanimate” the grain deal in the implementation of the agreements

Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that Russia is ready to think about the resuscitation of the grain deal as soon as all the agreements recorded in it are fulfilled. The head of state stated this at a joint press conference with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“I would like to reaffirm our principled position. We will again consider the possibility of reviving the grain deal, and today I once again told the President about this [Эрдогану]. And we will do it as soon as all the agreements on the lifting of restrictions on the export of Russian agricultural products are fully implemented,” Putin said.

For its part, Russia, the president noted, “despite all the obstacles put in place,” intends to continue exporting food and fertilizers, help stabilize prices and improve the situation in the global agricultural sector.

The President recalled that Russia was forced to withdraw from the Black Sea initiative, as Western countries “have blocked and continue to block the implementation of the grain deal in terms of ensuring the access of Russian agricultural producers to world markets.”

Putin also spoke about the “deception of the West” and the supply of grain to “wealthy countries.”

“The West deceived us. More than 70% of the grain went to wealthy countries, primarily to the EU. Only 3%, that is, less than 1 million tons, fell to the share of states that really need food assistance,” the president said.

September 3 Media reportedthat in order to resume the grain deal, the United Nations (UN) proposed to start negotiations on unfreezing the assets of Russian fertilizer companies in Europe and connecting the Russian Agricultural Bank to SWIFT. The Turkish newspaper Sabah wrote about this, citing sources.

At the same time, earlier TASS, citing diplomatic sources in the UN informedwhat plans to connect Rosselkhozbank to the SWIFT settlement system in order to restore the grain deal. It was clarified that earlier it was proposed to carry out settlements through the SWIFT system with a subsidiary of Rosselkhozbank, but not with the bank itself.

On July 17, Russia left the Black Sea Initiative, which was signed on July 22, 2022 by representatives of Turkey, the UN, Russia and Ukraine. The Kremlin explained this by the failure to fulfill the second part of the agreement, which concerns, among other things, the lifting of restrictions on the supply of Russian products.