Putin promises African leaders free grain despite 'hypocritical' Western sanctions
Putin promises African leaders free grain despite 'hypocritical' Western sanctions
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday told African leaders he would gift them tens of thousands of tons of grain within months despite Western sanctions, which he said made it harder for Moscow to export its grain and fertilisers.
MOSCOW, July 27 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday told African leaders he would gift them tens of thousands of tons of grain within months despite Western sanctions, which he said made it harder for Moscow to export its grain and fertilisers.
Speaking at a summit in St Petersburg devoted to Russian-African ties, Putin said Russia was expecting a record grain harvest and was ready to replace Ukrainian grain exports to Africa on both a commercial and aid basis to honour what he said was Moscow's critical role in global food security.
"We will be ready to provide Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Central African Republic and Eritrea with 25-50,000 tonnes of free grain each in the next 3-4 months," Putin told the summit, whose participants applauded.
"We will also provide free delivery of these products to consumers."
Last year, Russia exported a total of 60 million tonnes of grain, of which 48 million tonnes was wheat, Putin said.
The event follows Russia's first Africa summit in 2019 and is part of a concerted push for influence and business on a continent where mercenaries from Russia's Wagner Group remain active despite an abortive mutiny at home last month.
Responding to Western criticism of Moscow's decision to quit the Black Sea grain deal, in which it allowed Ukraine to ship grain from its seaports despite the war, Putin restated his argument that promises made to Russia about facilitating its own grain and fertiliser exports had not been met.
A paradoxical picture is emerging. On the one hand, Western countries are obstructing supplies of our grain and fertilisers, while on the other they hypocritically blame us for the current crisis situation on the world food market," said Putin.
That ain't a paradox, chief. You illegally invaded another country, got slapped with sanctions, became an international pariah, and are now desperate for anyone to do business with you. If Putin really cared about exporting grain, he wouldn't have backed out of the Ukraine grain export deal.
It should be clear that most of the information in the news is quoted from Putin.
That also explains why someone who just bombed grain silos in multiple Ukrainian port cities and ended the U.N. grain deal, blames the West for screwing poor countries over.
Or he blames western sanctions for food shortages, while at the same time bragging about exporting 60 million tonnes of grain last year and expecting a record grain harvest this year. Which again is a cynical remark, as Russia was caught stealing tonnes of Ukrainian grain to sell it as their own.
There is not a lot of sense or truth in Putin's statements.
I don't have much hopes for the average African leader... many of them will by this. Europe should definitely focus help and investments on the few African nations with reasonable leaders that don't treat Europe as the threat and Russia as the friend. Investing one cent in the countries with leaders educated in the former USSR is a waste of ressources, they're brainwashed since youth. We need to separate the wheat from the chaff.