MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin on Wednesday restated its position on the Black Sea grain deal, saying it was ready to return to it “immediately” once the part that concerns Russia was implemented.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was commenting a day after the U.S. envoy to the United Nations said there were “indications” that Russia might be interested in returning to discussions about the deal, which had allowed Ukraine to export grain by sea.
Peskov also told reporters that President Vladimir Putin was holding a call on Wednesday morning with Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan, whose country brokered the deal along with the United Nations in July last year.
Moscow exited the deal last month, complaining that the international community had failed to ensure that Russia could also freely export its grain and fertiliser as part of that accord.
Asked about the issue, Peskov said: “Russia – and President Putin has said this 100 times already – is ready to immediately return to the deal itself… just the deal must be implemented in the part that concerns the Russian Federation. So far this has not been done, as you know.”
“The West imposed sanctions against Russia without taking into account the needs of the world community for food, the U.N. General Secretariat is well aware of this,” he added.
Russia’s grain and fertiliser exports are not subject to Western sanctions but Moscow has said restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance have been a barrier to shipments.
The deal aimed to alleviate a global food crisis, and grain prices have risen since Moscow let it expire on July 17. Ukraine and Russia are both leading grain exporters.
Nearly 33 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain was exported while the Black Sea deal was in operation.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Gareth Jones; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
