Putin stated on Monday that if the Black Sea grain agreement is not extended in May, Russia will give grain to African nations gratis.
Speaking to participants at a Russia-Africa parliamentary conference, Putin noted that only a small portion of the deal’s unblocked grain exports had made it to the continent and that it was in Africa’s best interests if Russia met its conditions for the deal’s renewal.
Moscow further declared that it would not consent to extend the grain agreement past May unless problems with the Swift financial messaging system are fixed and additional restrictions are lifted.
On its website, the Russian foreign ministry said Moscow had decided to limit the deal’s extension to 60 days, until May 18, over what it called “a lack of progress… on normalisation of domestic agricultural exports”.