Russia sees no basis for extending grain deals
According to Russia, it sees no basis for renewing the agreement on grain exports from Ukraine. This was announced by the Foreign Ministry in Moscow on Tuesday, almost two weeks before the current regulation expired.
However, everything will be done to ensure that all ships can leave the Black Sea ports that are intended for this by July 17. At the same time, ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova rejected the idea of the European Union to set up a subsidiary of the responsible Russian agricultural bank Rosselkhosbank, which could be reconnected to the Swift international payment system.
Such an approach is not feasible, said Zakharova. In the wake of sanctions over the Ukraine war, the major Russian banks were decoupled from the Swift system. However, payments in connection with grain exports could then be processed via a subsidiary with the help of Swift, according to the EU’s considerations. Russia had previously cited the return of the agricultural bank itself to the Swift system as one of its conditions for another grain deal extension.