Putin says Russia has no relation to international food crises, blames west

CAIRO – 3 June 2022:  Russian President Vladimir Putin denied in statements, Friday that Russia has any relation to the food international crises, saying that there are’ attempts to shift the responsibility’ for what is happening on the world food market onto Russia.

 “Of course, we are now seeing attempts to shift the responsibility for what is happening on the world food market, the emerging problems in this market, onto Russia,” he told Russian TV.

Putin, however, blamed the West for emerging global food and energy crises and repeated his government's offers of safe passage for ships exporting grain from Ukraine if mines are removed from the waters.

“I must say that this is an attempt, as our people say, to shift these problems from a sick to a healthy head.” As reported by the state-run Tass news agency, Putin also said Western sanctions against Russia would only worsen world markets – reducing the harvest and driving up prices.

He said inflation stemmed from the unprecedented dollar “printing press” during the coronavirus pandemic and blamed short-sighted European policies for under-investment in alternatives to traditional energy supplies and price increases.

In statements to Rossiya-1 TV Channel, Putin said that Russia does not obstruct grain export from Ukraine and this can be done via Black Sea ports and neighboring countries.

"As regards Ukrainian grain exports, we do not put obstacles to that," Putin said, according to TASS

Several ways of exporting such grain exist, the Russian leader noted. This can be done via ports controlled by Ukraine after mine clearance, via Berdyansk and Mariupol, via the Danube River and Romania, Hungary and Poland, and the simplest way is through Belarus, Putin added.

Commenting on statements that Russia is preventing shipments of grain from Ukrainian ports, Putin said: "That’s bluster".

"Now we are being told that Ukraine is ready to export 20 million tons. Twenty million tons compared to what is produced in the world - 800 million tons - is that much? That’s 2.5%," he said. "But if we proceed from the fact that wheat makes up only 20% of the total volume of food in the world <...> that means that 20 million tons of Ukrainian wheat is 0.5%. That’s nothing."

He said Kiev’s real exports are lower. Putin said that US officials say that Ukraine could export about 6 million tons of wheat.

"According to our Agriculture Ministry, this is not 6, but about 5 million tons. But let it be 6," he said. "And there’s - according to our Agriculture Ministry - 7 million tons of corn. We understand that that’s not much."

He said Russia in the current crop year will export about 37 million tons of grain.

Additional reporting by AP