EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell is simply twisting the facts, putting forward unfounded, untenable arguments in his statements concerning the Black Sea grain deal and Russia, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.
The diplomat commented on a recent article by the EU foreign policy chief in which he insisted that EU sanctions were not having any negative impact on global food security and that Ukraine was playing a critical role in ensuring it, and in which Borrell prioritized fighting alleged Russian disinformation on the food security issue.
"Borrell does not even bother to put forward any serious grounding for his position. He simply twists the facts, putting forward unfounded, obviously untenable arguments. [He] proposes simply taking on faith his assertions that Russia allegedly derived significant benefits from the second part of the package deal [reached in Istanbul in July 2022], i.e. the Memorandum of Understanding with the UN, which in fact was never actually functional, as well as the purported absence of any negative impact of sanctions on Russian exports. The world community should hold Borrell accountable for the lies [he has] spread; he did not cite a single fact, but he did remain silent about many things," Zakharova noted.
The diplomat stressed that Borrell's words constitute disinformation and fakes.
"The cessation of the functioning of the Black Sea Initiative limits the ability of the European Union, under a specious excuse, to replenish its own stocks and quietly and with impunity profit from the most vulnerable countries in this regard, enriching themselves at their expense by reselling cheap Ukrainian grain and other goods," she went on.
"Moreover, there was additional pressure on the alternative routes created by Brussels for the export of Ukrainian grain, the 'corridors of solidarity,' through which, according to the European Commission, more than 60% of grain was exported from Ukraine since the beginning of the special military operation."
According to Zakharova, all of this is fraught with tangible tension for the EU's own food security, "especially in the context of the well-known negative consequences of anti-Russian sanctions on the domestic EU market, and unfavorable climatic and public health conditions in a number of EU regions."
"There are risks of political instability in the countries bordering Ukraine, where local farmers - [who make up] a significant part of the electorate - are on the verge of bankruptcy due to the dumping prices charged for Ukrainian agricultural products in local [Eastern European] markets," she added.
Deliberate hushing up
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman pointed out that Borrell never says anything about the Russian and Belarusian fertilizers that needy countries did not receive due to EU sanctions and about the devastating long-term consequences of this fact for global food security.
"Moreover, Belarus, whose share in the world trade in potash fertilizers until 2022 was 20%, is not mentioned in the article at all. Meanwhile, on August 3 of this year, Brussels imposed sanctions against the Belneftekhim concern, which owns key Belarusian enterprises, manufacturers of nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers," she said.
"Does this mean that the European officials, who put their rubber stamp on anti-Russian and anti-Belarusian restrictions, simply do not understand anything about agriculture? Or are the efforts to undermine the export potential of the Russian and Belarusian agricultural sectors deliberately done on purpose? I think the answer is obvious. And concern for global food security is nothing more than another attempt to justify the disastrous consequences of the EU sanctions policy," Zakharova stated.
She also noted that Borrell did not say a word about the share of Russian goods in global agricultural markets and the number of countries that meet their needs through deliveries sourced from Russia.
"We are convinced that the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America to which this article is addressed are well aware of what may result from the irresponsible behavior of Brussels, which, in its desire to ‘inflict a strategic defeat on Russia,’ is ready without hesitation to subvert reliable supply chains for bringing domestic [Russian] agricultural products to countries in need," Zakharova said.
"In this situation the EU, which is still desperately claiming to be a responsible international player, must choose: either to stop purposefully destabilizing global food markets by imposing more and more restrictions on Russian and Belarusian agricultural products, or to stop pretending to be a champion of world food security," the diplomat concluded.
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