Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered African countries to replace Ukrainian grain exports, which he has blocked since cancelling a UN-Turkey mediated agreement, with Russian grain for free.
“Russia remains a reliable supplier of food to Africa,” Putin said in St Petersburg on Thursday at a second Africa summit. The meeting with African Union (AU) representatives was partly broadcast on state television.
Russia wants to provide some countries with 25,000 to 50,000 tons of grain for free in the next three to four months, Putin said. Zimbabwe, Mali, Burkina Faso, Somalia, Eritrea and the Central African Republic are to receive the grain.
Putin assured the African leaders that Moscow would find ways to supply them with grain. In the first half of the year, Russia had already exported 10 million tons of grain to the continent, and Russian-African trade had grown by 35% in that time frame, despite sanctions. Russia is also considered Africa’s most important arms supplier.
AU Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat lamented at the meeting that the war between Russia and Ukraine was exacerbating the food crisis.
“Africa is suffering,” he said, according to the Russian translation.
The TV broadcast was cut short when Putin tried to respond.
AU chair and Comoros President Azali Assoumani called on Moscow and Kiev to end the war. Africa needs Russian and Ukrainian grain, he told a plenary session. The lives of many people depend on the supplies, he said. “It is important today to fight for a sustainable peace between Russia and Ukraine,” he said.
Putin categorically rejected as “hypocritical” accusations by the West that Russia is now engaging in “hunger games” with its war against Ukraine and blockade of the country’s grain shipments across the Black Sea.
Putin is demanding an easing of Western sanctions because he sees them as hindering the export of Russia’s own grain and fertilizer. He said more than 200,000 tons of fertilizer from Russia were stranded in European ports, which Moscow could also hand over in a humanitarian operation.
“A paradoxical picture is emerging: on the one hand, the West is creating obstacles to the deliveries of our grain and fertilizer. On the other hand, I say it clearly, we are hypocritically blamed for the crisis situation on the world market,” Putin said during a speech to the guests. Russia was supplying 20% of the wheat for the world market.
During the Africa summit, Putin aims to demonstrate that he is not isolated internationally despite the ongoing war.According to the Kremlin, 49 of 54 African countries will be at the two-day meeting. However only 17 prime ministers will attend - fewer than at the first summit in 2019.
Putin’s keynote speech is expected on Friday.
Asked about Putin’s grain promise, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre expressed skepticism.
“Russia’s unilateral withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain initiative… caused, as you know, significant volatility in grain and food prices,” Jean-Pierre told journalists in Washington.
“While we would welcome any actual contributions to alleviate global food insecurity… it cannot replace the millions and millions of tons of grain export that helped stabilize food prices around the world.”
The spokeswoman went on to say that it was now up to Moscow to show this wasn’t an “empty promise.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres meanwhile said he was still working with Turkey, Ukraine, Russia and other parties to reestablish the Black Sea Initiative.
“It is not with a handful of donations to some countries that will correct this dramatic impact that effects everybody, everywhere,” Guterres said.
