Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) listens to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during their meeting at Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi, Monday.
Sergei Guneyev/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
MOSCOW — In closely watched talks in the southern Russian resort city of Sochi, Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected efforts by his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to revive a United Nations-backed deal to allow the safe passage of grain from Ukraine — the latest setback in the grain deal since Moscow exited it in July.
In a news conference at the conclusion of the one-day summit on Monday, Putin recycled a litany of complaints about the U.N. deal, arguing the agreement helped Ukraine export its grain but repeatedly failed to live up to promises to ease Russia’s agriculture trade.
“As often happens with our Western partners, they cheated us,” Putin said.
The Kremlin leader told Erdogan that Russia was open to restarting the grain deal — but only once Western-imposed restrictions on banking and logistics were lifted.
“We’re not against the deal. We’re ready to rejoin immediately, but only once the promises made to us have been fulfilled,” added the Russian leader.
Putin also repeated another familiar Russian trope: that the Ukraine grain deal mostly benefited wealthier countries.
Erdogan appeared to reject that notion — saying the grain deal had indeed benefited poorer countries — and he expressed hope Russia would eventually rejoin the agreement he had helped craft.
“As Turkey, we believe that we will reach a solution that will meet the expectations in a short time,” Erdogan said.
Since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, Russia has…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply