Russia ready to return to grain deal if it is performed in full: Kremlin

Russia is ready to promptly return to the Black Sea grain deal but the part pertaining to Moscow should be implemented, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

“Russia, and President Vladimir Putin has already repeated that one hundred times, is ready to promptly return to the deal proper. Not only to talks but to the deal itself,” state news agency TASS cited Peskov as saying.

He added: “[It] is ready to do [this] immediately. The deal should be simply implemented in part pertaining to Russia. This has not been done up to now.”

Russia withdrew on July 17 from the Black Sea Grain Initiative – a wartime deal sponsored by the UN and Turkey that allowed Ukraine to send grain through the key Black Sea port.

Speaking at the plenary session of the Russia-Africa Forum late last week, Putin said that Russia had agreed to participate in the deal because its terms included the removal of illegitimate obstacles to the supply of grain and fertilizers from Russia to world markets. Moscow insists that none of those conditions have been met.

“In actual fact, nothing of what we discussed or what we were promised ever materialized. None of the conditions providing for the lifting of sanctions on Russian grain and fertilizer exports to global markets were implemented, not a single one of them,” Putin stressed on July 27.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin said that the grain deal could be resumed “in a new form,” but this would require “concrete action” by the West.

Read more:

Russia limits ship, aircraft movement in Kerch Strait near Crimea: Defense ministry

Russia continues to posture Gerasimov as effective commander in Ukraine: Think tank

Putin, Erdogan agree to prepare for potential meeting: Kremlin