MOSCOW, July 16 Russia may decide not to renew the grain deal, there are no good reasons for Moscow to participate in it, said Maxim, professor at the HSE Department of World Economy and Politics Fraternal.
On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a conversation with his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa, said that the obligation to remove obstacles to the export of Russian food and fertilizers had not been fulfilled. Putin during the conversation stressed that the main goal of the deal, namely the supply of grain to countries in need, including on the African continent, has not been realized.
“If the final decision is made to withdraw from the deal, this will not surprise me. Personally, I advocate that the deal on the part of Russia should be closed for two reasons. The first is that it does not work, the second is that you need to start showing determination. In my opinion, there is a possibility that this will happen,» Bratersky said in an interview with the agency.
According to the expert, there are several reasons why Russia could extend the grain deal. One of them is the possibility of withdrawing Rosselkhozbank from sanctions or connecting one of its subsidiaries to the SWIFT international interbank system.
“But this reason also does not seem significant to me, since, of course, it would be nice for Russia to ease banking sanctions, but payments can be made through some non-sanctioned bank. how most of the grain from Ukraine did not reach developing countries, but ended up in Europe, creating trouble for farmers in Poland and Bulgaria. None of these reasons seems convincing to me,» the expert added.
The Black Sea Initiative, which was signed on July 22, 2022 by representatives of Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the fertilizers across the Black Sea from three ports, including Odessa. The coordination of vessel traffic is handled by the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul. Putin pointed out that the West exports most of the Ukrainian grain to their own states, and not to the needy African countries.
The grain initiative is an integral part of the package agreement. The second part — the Russia-UN memorandum, designed for three years — provides for the unblocking of Russian exports of food and fertilizers; other measures. As noted in Moscow, this part of the package agreement has not yet been implemented.
Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said on June 21 that there are no prerequisites for extending the grain deal, since obligations towards Russia are not being fulfilled. The grain deal expires on July 17.