The Kremlin reaffirmed Russia’s readiness to return to the grain deal

Russia is ready to return to the grain deal, Russian President Vladimir Putin “has repeated this a hundred times already,” his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

“Putin has repeated this a hundred times. Russia is ready to immediately return to the deal itself, not only to the negotiations, but to the deal itself,” Peskov said, commenting on US data on Russia’s readiness to renew the agreement.

At the same time, Peskov noted that the deal should also be implemented in terms of Russian conditions. “Until now, this has not been done,” the Kremlin spokesman said.

Earlier, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that Russia could return to discussions of the grain agreement, while she noted that “there is little hope.”

Russia left the Black Sea Initiative, which was signed on July 22, 2022 by representatives of Turkey, the UN, Russia and Ukraine on July 17. 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. At the same time, the Russian leader noted that the deal could be resumed if Russia’s demands were met.

On July 27, Putin at the plenary session of the Russia-Africa Forum appreciated results of the agreement. According to him, during the year of the deal, 32.8 million tons of cargo was exported from Ukraine, of which 70% went to high-income countries. At the same time, according to his data, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan and other African countries accounted for less than 3% of the total supply – less than 1 million tons.

First Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN Dmitry Polyansky at a meeting of the UN Security Council on July 21 named seven conditions for Russia’s return to the grain agreement. In particular, providing conditions for expanding the supply of fertilizers and raw materials for their production, connecting to the SWIFT international banking settlement system, etc.