Russian President Vladimir Putin promised African leaders yesterday that he would give them tens of thousands of tons of grain within months, despite Western sanctions that he says make it difficult for Moscow to export its grain and fertilizers.
Addressing a summit in St Petersburg devoted to Russo-African ties, Putin said Russia expected a record grain harvest this year and was ready to replace Ukrainian exports to Africa, both on a trade and aid basis, and to honor what he said was Moscow’s critical role in world food security.
“We will be ready to supply Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, the Central African Republic and Eritrea with between 25,000 and 50,000 tons of free grain each in the next three to four months,” Putin declared at the summit, whose participants reacted to applause. “We will also offer free delivery of these products to consumers,” he said.
The event, in which several agreements are expected to be signed, follows the first Russia-Africa summit in Moscow in 2019. According to Russia, 49 of the 54 African states are represented at the present summit, 17 by their heads of state. and four by heads of government.
Responding to Western criticism of Russia’s decision last week to terminate the agreement on the export of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea, Putin reiterated that Moscow withdrew because none of the promises made to it had been fulfilled. they did about facilitating their own exports of grain and fertilizers.
Some Western politicians have said that Russia’s withdrawal from the deal is irresponsible and will cause millions of people in poor countries to suffer. However, Putin declared at the summit that more than 70% of Ukraine’s exported grain had gone to high and above-average income countries, including those in the European Union, and that poor countries like Sudan had been “fucked up”. and received less than 3% of shipments.
Russia represents 20% of the world cereal market, stressed the Russian president. “We seek to actively participate in the construction of a fairer resource distribution system. We are doing our best to avoid a global food crisis,” Putin said. According to him, Western sanctions had even prevented Russia from supplying free fertilizer to poor nations.
“A paradoxical picture is emerging. On the one hand, Western countries hinder the supply of our grains and fertilizers, while on the other they hypocritically blame us for the current crisis situation on the world food market,” Putin declared.
To try to counteract Russian influence in Africa, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmitro Kuleba, has visited Equatorial Guinea and Liberia this week, on his third trip to the continent. Kuleba’s first African tour took place in October last year, when he traveled to Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Kenya, and his second, in May this year, with visits to Morocco, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Mozambique and Nigeria. .
