Pavel Zarubin: Vladimir Vladimirovich, we have just observed your meeting with the head of Senegal, who is also the leader of the African Union. He spoke about this, and in general, of course, for the last week, one can feel that many countries are extremely worried, not so much about the food crisis – they are afraid of large-scale famine, because world food prices are skyrocketing, oil and gas prices are skyrocketing. These are all interconnected things.

The West, of course, also blames us for this. In reality, what is the situation at this moment, how is it developing? And what, in your opinion, will happen to the food and energy markets next?

Vladimir Putin: Yes, of course, we are now seeing attempts to shift the responsibility for what is happening on the world food market, the emerging problems in this market onto Russia. I must say that this is an attempt, as our people say, to shift these problems from a sick head to a healthy one. Why?

• Because, firstly, the unfavorable situation on the world food market did not begin to take shape yesterday and not even from the moment Russia launched a special military operation in the Donbass, in Ukraine. It began to take shape as early as February 2020 in the process of combating the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, when the world economy, the world economy, sat down, and it was necessary to restore the world economy.
• The financial and economic authorities have not found anything better in the same United States than to follow the path of injecting large sums of money to support the population, to support individual enterprises and sectors of the economy.
• In general, we did about the same thing, but I can assure you, and the result is obvious, obvious: we did it much more carefully, we did it pointwise, we achieved the desired result without all these actions affecting macroeconomic indicators, in including the exorbitant rise in inflation.

The situation in the same United States was completely different. In two years, less than two years, from February 2020 to the end of 2021, the money supply in the United States grew by 5.9 trillion. This is an unprecedented work of the printing press. The total money supply increased by 38.6 percent.

Apparently, the financial authorities of the United States proceeded from the fact that the dollar is the world currency, and, as usual, as in the old days, it will dissipate throughout the world economy, and this will not be noticeable in the States. It turned out that this was not the case.

As a matter of fact, people are decent, and there are such people in the States too, the Secretary of the Treasury recently said that they made a mistake. So this is a mistake of the financial and economic authorities of the United States, it has nothing to do with Russia’s actions in Ukraine, not at all.

And this was the first step, a very serious step towards the development of an unfavorable situation on the food market, because, first of all, food prices went up, went up. This is the first.

• The second reason is the short-sighted policy of European countries, and above all the European Commission, in the energy sector. We see what is happening there. I personally believe that many political forces in the United States and Europe have begun to speculate on the natural anxiety of the planet’s inhabitants about the state of the climate, for climate change, and have begun to promote this “green agenda”, including in the energy sector.

Everything seems to be good, but it’s not good only when unqualified, unfounded recommendations are given on what needs to be done in the energy sector, the possibilities of alternative types of energy are exaggerated: solar, wind, I don’t know, any other, hydrogen, – this is a prospect, probably, but today this is not in the proper volume, the proper quality and at the right prices. And at the same time, they began to belittle the importance of traditional types of energy, including, and above all, hydrocarbons.

• What did it lead to? Banks have stopped lending because they are under pressure. Insurance companies have ceased to insure the relevant transactions. Local authorities stopped issuing plots of land for expanding production, reduced the construction of specialized transport, including pipelines.
• All this has led to underinvestment in the global energy sector, and as a result, higher prices. Please, last year there was not enough wind load, the wind was not as expected, the winter dragged on – and prices immediately flew up.

Among other things, the Europeans did not heed our urgent requests to maintain long-term contracts for the supply of the same natural gas to European countries, and they also began to cover them up. Many are still working, but have begun to cover up. But this had a negative effect on the European energy market: prices went up. Russia has absolutely nothing to do with it.

• But as soon as gas prices, say, went up, prices for fertilizers immediately increased, because some of these fertilizers are produced, among other things, at the expense of gas. Everything is interconnected. As soon as prices for fertilizers began to creep, many enterprises, including those in European countries, became unprofitable, began to close altogether – and the volume of fertilizers on the world market fell sharply, and prices, accordingly, rose, and prices rose dramatically, one might say, quite unexpectedly for many European politicians.

But we warned about this, and this has nothing to do with any Russian military operation in the Donbass, it has nothing to do with it at all.

But the next step, when our operation began, the European, American partners, the so-called, began to take steps that aggravated the situation in this sector: both in the food and fertilizer sectors.

• By the way, in fertilizers Russia occupies 25 percent of the world market, but let’s say, in potash fertilizers, as Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko told me, we need to check, of course, but I think that this is true, for potash fertilizers Russia and Belarus – 45 percent of the world market. This is a huge volume.

And the yield depends on the amount of fertilizers invested in the soil. As soon as it became clear that there would be no our fertilizers on the world market, the prices for both fertilizers and food immediately went up, because if there are no fertilizers, there is no necessary volume of agricultural production.

One clings to the other, and Russia has absolutely nothing to do with it. Our partners themselves have made a lot of mistakes, and now they are looking for someone to blame, and, of course, in this sense, Russia is the most convenient candidate for this.

Pavel Zarubin: By the way, news has just come that the new European sanctions package includes the wife of the head of one of our largest fertilizer companies.

What will all this lead to, in your opinion?

Vladimir Putin: Here’s what: the situation will worsen.

After all, the British, then the Americans – the Anglo-Saxons – imposed sanctions on our fertilizers. Then, realizing what was happening, the Americans lifted the sanctions, but the Europeans did not. In contacts with me, they themselves say: yes, yes, we need to think about it, we need to do something about it, but today they only aggravated this situation.

• This will worsen the situation on the global fertilizer markets, which means that the prospects for the harvest will be much more modest, which means that prices will only go up – that’s all. This is an absolutely short-sighted, erroneous, I would say, simply stupid policy that leads to a dead end.

Pyotr Zarubin: But Russia is being accused from very high rostrums that the grain exist in reality, but it is in Ukrainian ports, and Russia allegedly does not allow this grain to be exported.

Vladimir Putin: This is a bluff. And that’s why.

• First, there are some objective things, I will now talk about them. Approximately 800 million tons of grain and wheat are produced annually in the world. Now we are being told that Ukraine is ready to export 20 million tons. 20 million tons compared to what is produced in the world, 800 million tons, is 2.5 percent. But if we proceed from the fact that wheat makes up only 20 percent of the total food supply in the world – and this is true, these are not our data, these are UN data – then this means that these 20 million tons of Ukrainian wheat – it’s 0.5 percent, nothing. This is first.
• Secondly, 20 million tons of Ukrainian wheat is a potential export. To date, American officials are also saying that today Ukraine could export six million tons of wheat – according to our Ministry of Agriculture, this is not six, it is about five million tons, even, let’s say, six – and, this is the data of our Ministry of Agriculture, seven million tons of corn. We understand that this is not much.

In the current agricultural year – 2021-2022 – we will export 37 million tons, and for 2022-2023, I think that we will raise this export to 50 million tons. But it is so, apropo, by the way.

As for the export of Ukrainian grain, we do not prevent it. And there are several ways to export grain.

• The first. Please, you can export through the ports that are under the control of Ukraine, primarily the Black Sea basin – Odessa and nearby ports. It was not we who mined the approaches to the port – it was Ukraine who mined it.

I have already told all our colleagues many times: let them clear mines, and please let the ships loaded with grain leave the ports. We guarantee their peaceful passage without any problems into international waters. There is no problem please.

They must clear mines and lift ships from the bottom of the Black Sea that were deliberately sunk in order to make it difficult to enter these ports in southern Ukraine. We are ready to do this, we will not use the demining situation to launch any attacks from the sea, as I have already said. This is the first.

• Second. There is another possibility: the ports of the Sea of ​​Azov – Berdyansk, Mariupol – are under our control, we are ready to ensure the smooth export of Ukrainian grain through these ports. Please.

We have already carried out, we are finishing the demining work – Ukrainian troops once mined it in three layers – the work is coming to an end. We will create the necessary logistics. Please, we will do it. This is the second.

• Third. It is possible to export grain from Ukraine through the Danube and through Romania.
• Fourth. It is possible through Hungary.
• Fifth. It is possible through Poland. Yes, there are certain technical problems there, because the track gauge is different, and wagon bogies need to be changed. But it’s just a matter of a few hours, that’s all.
• And, finally, the simplest thing is export through the territory of Belarus. The easiest and cheapest, because from there immediately to the ports of the Baltic States, to the Baltic Sea and further – to anywhere in the world.

But for this it is necessary to remove sanctions from Belarus. But this is not our issue. In any case, the President of Belarus Alexander Grigoryevich [Lukashenko] puts the question in this way: if someone wants to solve the problem, if it exists at all, the export of Ukrainian grain, please, the easiest way is through Belarus. Nobody interferes.

So there is no problem with the export of grain from Ukraine.

Pavel Zarubin: What could be the logistics of export from those ports that are under our control? What can be the conditions?

Vladimir Putin: No conditions.

Please, we will ensure peaceful passage, guarantee the safety of approaches to these ports, ensure the entry of foreign ships and their movement along the Azov and Black Seas in any direction.

By the way, there are a lot of foreign ships stuck in Ukrainian ports today, dozens of ships. They are simply kept locked up there, and, by the way, the crews are still being held hostage.

Source: kremlin.ru [RU]

• Translated