Putin Says World Faces Food Crisis Due to West’s Sanctions

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with the head of the Republic of Ingushetia Makhmud-Ali Kalimatov at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia March 30, 2022. (Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with the head of the Republic of Ingushetia Makhmud-Ali Kalimatov at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia March 30, 2022. (Reuters)
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Putin Says World Faces Food Crisis Due to West’s Sanctions

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with the head of the Republic of Ingushetia Makhmud-Ali Kalimatov at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia March 30, 2022. (Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with the head of the Republic of Ingushetia Makhmud-Ali Kalimatov at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia March 30, 2022. (Reuters)

President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia must keep a close eye on its food exports to hostile countries because the West's sanctions had fomented a global food crisis and spiraling energy prices.

The West's sanctions over Putin's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine have tipped Russia towards its worst economic crisis since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, though Moscow says the global impact of the sanctions could be much more significant.

The Kremlin chief cautioned that higher energy prices combined with a shortage of fertilizers would prompt the West to print money to buy up supplies, leading to food shortages among poorer countries.

"They will inevitably exacerbate food shortages in the poorest regions of the world, spur new waves of migration and in general drive food prices even higher," Putin told a meeting on developing food production.

"In these current conditions, a shortage of fertilizers on the global market is inevitable," Putin said. "We will have to be more careful about food supplies abroad, especially carefully monitor the exports to countries which are hostile to us."

One of Putin's allies warned last week that Russia could limit supplies of agriculture products to "friendly" countries only, amid Western sanctions imposed on Moscow.

Russia is the world's largest exporter of wheat, supplying it mainly to Africa and the Middle East, and a major producer of potash, phosphate and nitrogen containing fertilizers - key crop and soil nutrients.

Russia produces more than 50 million tons a year of fertilizers, 13% of the global total. Phosagro, Uralchem, Uralkali, Acron and Eurochem are the biggest fertilizer players.

Sanctions, Putin said, had disrupted logistics for fertilizer supplies from Russia and Belarus while higher prices for natural gas was making fertilizer production more expensive in the West.

In a warning to European states, Putin warned that Moscow would respond in kind to any attempt to nationalize Russian assets, quipping that such action was a "a double-edged weapon".

Putin was speaking a day after Germany said its energy regulator would take control of Gazprom Germania, a gas trading, storage and transmission business which Russia's Gazprom said it was exiting last Friday.

The British government may decide to step in and temporarily run Russian gas giant Gazprom's British retail supply arm.

Putin says Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine is necessary because the United States was using Ukraine to threaten Russia and Moscow had to defend Russian-speaking people in Ukraine from persecution.

Ukraine has dismissed Putin's claims of persecution and says Russia is fighting an unprovoked war of aggression.



50 European Leaders Assess How Trump Will Affect their Fortunes

In this handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on November 7, 2024, European leaders, including Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban (1st row, C) and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (1st row, 3rd L) pose for a group photo during the European Political Community Summit in Budapest. (Photo by Handout / UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE / AFP)
In this handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on November 7, 2024, European leaders, including Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban (1st row, C) and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (1st row, 3rd L) pose for a group photo during the European Political Community Summit in Budapest. (Photo by Handout / UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE / AFP)
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50 European Leaders Assess How Trump Will Affect their Fortunes

In this handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on November 7, 2024, European leaders, including Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban (1st row, C) and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (1st row, 3rd L) pose for a group photo during the European Political Community Summit in Budapest. (Photo by Handout / UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE / AFP)
In this handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on November 7, 2024, European leaders, including Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban (1st row, C) and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (1st row, 3rd L) pose for a group photo during the European Political Community Summit in Budapest. (Photo by Handout / UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE / AFP)

Around 50 European leaders on Thursday called for a stronger defense posture across the continent that no longer necessitates a fundamental dependence on Washington as they gave a guarded welcome to incoming US President Donald Trump.
The European Political Community summit on Thursday in Hungary's capital Budapest reassessed trans-Atlantic relations in the hope that Donald Trump's second US presidency will avoid the strife of his first administration.
“He was elected by the American people. He will defend the American interests," French President Emmanuel Macron told the other leaders, adding that it was not the role of European Union leaders to “comment on the election ... to wonder if it is good or not.”
“The question is whether we are willing to defend the European interest. It is the only question. It is our priority,” The Associated Press quoted Macron as saying.
Time and again, leaders stepped up to say European defense efforts should be increased.
During his first 2017-2021 presidency, Trump strongly pushed the European NATO allies to spend more on defense, up to and beyond 2% of gross domestic product, and to be less reliant on US military cover. That point has totally sunk in.
“He was the one in NATO who stimulated us to move over the 2%. And now, also thanks to him, NATO, if you take out the numbers of the US, is above the 2%,” NATO chief Mark Rutte said.
Charles Michel, the council president of the 27-nation EU, agreed that the continent needed to become less reliant on the United States.
“We have to be more masters of our destiny,” he said. “Not because of Donald Trump or Kamala Harris, but because of our children.”
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said it was “time to wake up from our geopolitical naivete and to realize that we need to commit additional resources in order to be able to address major challenges. It is a (question of) competitiveness and a European defense.”
During his election campaign, Trump threatened anything from a trade war with Europe to a withdrawal from NATO commitments and a fundamental shift of support for Ukraine in its war with Russia — all issues that could have groundbreaking consequences for nations across Europe.
“Of course he said a lot of things during the campaign,” said Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, adding they won't all be appearing in his official policies. “Transatlantic cooperation is of the utmost importance both for the US and European interests.”
For now, European leaders hope a new beginning holds the promise of smoother relations.
Rutte, who was Dutch prime minister during Trump's first presidency, said, “I worked with him very well for four years. He is extremely clear about what he wants. He understands that you have to deal with each other to come to joint positions. And I think we can do that.”
And Rutte insisted that the challenges posed by Russia in Ukraine affected both sides of the Atlantic.
“Russia is delivering the latest technology into North Korea in return for North Korean help with the war against Ukraine. And this is a threat not only to the European part of NATO, but also to the US mainland,” he said as he arrived at the summit.
During the campaign, Trump said if he were reelected, he would end the war in Ukraine, now well into its third year, in a single day. Ukraine and many of its European backers fear that this means a peace on terms favorable to Russian President Vladimir Putin and involving the surrender of territory.
European allies in NATO hope to convince Trump that if he helps to negotiate any peace, it should be done from a position of strength, for both Ukraine and the US.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who spoke to Trump last night by phone, told reporters in Budapest that Europe and the US need each other to remain strong.
“It was a good, productive conversation. Of course, we cannot yet know what his specific actions will be. But we hope that America will become stronger. This is the kind of America Europe needs. And a strong Europe is what America needs. This is the bond between allies that should be valued and must not be lost,” he said.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, the summit’s host and an ardent Trump fan, said early Thursday that he already had a phone call with the incoming president overnight, announcing, “We have big plans for the future!”
So did hard-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who lauded the “deep and historic strategic partnership that has always tied Rome and Washington.”
That partnership came under constant pressure during Trump’s first term. Trump’s administration slapped tariffs on EU steel and aluminum in 2018, based on the claim that foreign products, even if produced by American allies, were a threat to US national security. Europeans and other allies retaliated with duties on US-made motorcycles, peanut butter and jeans, among other items.
Further compounding an already complicated situation in Europe, Germany — the continent's troubled economic juggernaut — sank into political crisis after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz fired his finance minister, causing his governing coalition to collapse. Scholz, who remained in Berlin instead of joining the summit in Budapest, will now lead a minority government.
The turmoil raises the specter of an election in a few months and yet another standoff between the emboldened hard right and the establishment parties in Europe.
Those two combined “adds even more pepper and salt to this situation,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.