Man-made crisis: how the US Secretary of State accused Russia of blackmailing over Ukrainian grain

The head of the US State Department, Anthony Blinken, accused Russia of blackmail because of the situation with the export of grain from Ukraine.

He made the corresponding statement during an online event dedicated to food security.

“President Putin is obstructing food exports and is aggressively using his propaganda machine to evade responsibility or distort perceptions in this regard, in the hope of forcing the world to succumb to him and lift sanctions.

Simply put, this is blackmail,” Blinken said.

The Secretary of State also claims that a "Russian naval blockade" in the Black Sea is now preventing Ukrainian crops from being shipped to their usual destinations.

“About 20 million tons of wheat are stuck in elevators near Odessa and on ships literally filled with grain that cannot leave the port of Odessa due to the Russian blockade,” the official website of the State Department quoted him as saying.

“Russian military forces have taken over some of the most fertile agricultural land in Ukraine.”

• Anthony Blinken

• AP

• © Alex Brandon

In addition, citing "credible reports" published in one of the Western media, Blinken accused Russia of allegedly plundering Ukrainian export grain in order to sell it for a profit.

“Now Russia has also suspended its food exports,” Blinken said.

Grain issue

Western politicians in the past few weeks have been seeking the export of grain from the territory of Ukraine, where a special military operation is ongoing.

Moreover, representatives of the US and EU countries accuse Russia of hindering this process.

Moscow has repeatedly stressed that the export of Ukrainian grain by sea is currently impossible due to the fact that the waters of the ports under the control of the Kyiv regime remain mined.

This position on Tuesday, June 7, was again voiced by the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov.

“There is a statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said that Ukraine should clear the approaches to the ports.

This will allow the ships, after a proper check by our military to ensure that these ships do not bring weapons there, enter the port, load with grain and then, if necessary, even with our help, proceed towards international waters,” the Kremlin spokesman said.

Peskov added that there are no clearer outlines of possible agreements on the export of grain from Ukraine.

At the same time, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the Ukrainian side refused to approve the export of agricultural products through the territory of Belarus.

“We were offered to go through Belarus by rail (to export grain. -

).

We even understand how much.

But we understand why we were offered this.

We are not yet ready to follow this format and help our “friendly” neighbors,” Zelensky said.

Last week, the possibility of delivering Ukrainian grain to the ports of the Baltic countries in transit through Belarus was announced by President of the Republic Alexander Lukashenko in a telephone conversation with UN Secretary General António Guterres.

Vladimir Putin also spoke in favor of this option, calling it the simplest solution to this issue.

“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, ”the Russian leader emphasized in an interview with Pavel Zarubin on the air of the Rossiya 1 TV channel.

The President also said that Russia does not set any conditions for the export of grain from Ukrainian ports.

“No conditions, please, we will ensure peaceful passage, we guarantee the safety of approaches to these ports.

We will ensure the entry of foreign ships and their movement along the Azov and Black Seas," Putin said.

• Port of Mariupol

• RIA News

Statements that the Russian side allegedly blocks grain in the ports of Ukraine are a bluff, Putin added.

Commenting on the situation with the global food crisis, he noted that the unfavorable situation in this market began to take shape as early as February 2020, long before the start of the special operation in Ukraine.

But then the US and Europe began to take steps that worsened the situation in the food and fertilizer sectors, the president added.

“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.

Of course, in this sense, Russia is the most convenient candidate for this,” Putin stressed.

In turn, the head of the Ministry of Agriculture of Ukraine, Mykola Solsky, told reporters on June 7 that if the ports on the Black Sea remain closed, Kyiv will be able to export no more than 2 million tons of grain per month.

At the same time, cases are recorded when the Ukrainian military themselves deliberately destroy food supplies.

So, adviser to the chairman of the government of the DPR, Yan Gagin, in the RT stream "Letuchka" said that the retreating Ukrainian militants set fire to the grain, which was in the port of Mariupol.

Later, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation clarified that we are talking about the destruction of more than 50 thousand tons of products.

“But the Russian Armed Forces did not block the fleet - on the contrary, during the retreat, the Ukrainian Nazis (when they realized that the situation was hopeless) simply set it on fire.

Dozens of tons of corn and other grains simply burned down, and now these heaps of burnt grain, this coal and ash are still lying in the port, you can see them, ”said Gagin.

No moral right

Blinken's claims and accusations against Russia are unfounded, especially in the context of the sanctions imposed against Moscow, Vladimir Bruter, an expert at the International Institute for Humanitarian and Political Studies, said in a conversation with RT.

“Blackmail is the imposition of sanctions that are illegitimate from the point of view of international law, and not at all the position of Moscow.

What does Russia have to do with it?

She is not obliged to open the port of Odessa, it is surprising to me that the Russian Federation is negotiating about this.

Ukraine has many other routes – let them use them,” the expert noted.

He added that Russia has the right to respond to the sanctions imposed by the EU and the US as it sees fit.

At the same time, if preventing grain stored in Ukraine from entering the world market can cause starvation, as they say in the West, it is obvious that the problem is systemic and does not depend on Moscow’s actions, the political scientist emphasized.

“As for the use of the Odessa port: Zelensky previously stated that he was not ready to use either the territory of Belarus, or the port of Mariupol, or Berdyansk.

Why then should Russia go to meet them?

It turns out that no one wants to make concessions to Russia, it should be done by her.

Otherwise, it's blackmail.

In this case, the Russian Federation took the softest position of all possible: clear the ports, and the ships will be able to get out of them, ”Bruter emphasized.

In turn, the Director General of the Center for Political Information Alexei Mukhin, in an interview with RT, noted that the US authorities have no moral right to claim any blackmail from the Russian Federation.

“The United States is a country that has long left the legal field and, apparently, is not going to return there.

Therefore, these statements can be considered politically insignificant, ”the expert said.

He also expressed the opinion that Washington is trying to shift the responsibility for the food crisis to Russia, which is beneficial to the American establishment.

“The United States is going to use the food crisis, artificial and caused by the sanctions policy of Washington, to strangle a number of countries in order to get unhindered access to cheap resources or get them for free in exchange for food.

This is the plan of the United States, in which they are going to accuse Russia, ”the political scientist explained.

The world community needs to counteract such malicious actions by the US, the UK and individual EU countries, Mukhin added.

“It is necessary to call them to order and not to obey the robbery demands, but to return to the observance of international law,” the political scientist concluded.