The restrictions imposed by the US and its allies against Russia and Belarus will only exacerbate the looming global food crisis by affecting the fertilizer trade and sending food prices even higher, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.
In a special TV interview on Friday evening following a meeting with African Union head Macky Sall in Sochi, Putin accused Western leaders of trying “to shift the responsibility for what is happening in the world food market.”
The root causes of the crisis lie with the US financial policies during the Covid-19 pandemic and Europe’s over-reliance on renewables and short-term gas contracts, which have led to price hikes and rising inflation, Putin has said.
“It began to take shape as early as February 2020 in the process of combating the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic,” he added.