Grain Crisis: West Has Deceived Poor Countries, Putin Says

VLADIVOSTOK (Sputnik) - The West has betrayed the poorest countries by breaking the agreements of the grain deal, but Russia will continue working on ensuring that food reaches global markets, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.

"All this pressure that was exerted on us by our quasi-partners and our geopolitical opponents, it was based precisely on Russia's call to ensure the interests of the poorest economies, to prevent hunger in these countries," Putin said at a plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok.

Russia has done and is doing everything that is expected of it to ensure the implementation of the agreements, the president stressed.

"But it turned out that once again it was just, as people say in our country, we were rudely cheated and dumped. And not only us, but also the poorest countries under the pretext of ensuring [their] interests," Putin said.

Restrictions on the export of food and fertilizers from Russia are still in place and affect the global market, causing prices to further increase, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.

"Formally, sanctions on Russian fertilizers, as well as on food are lifted, but in fact there are restrictions," Putin said, adding that this is such "a tricky, complicated situation when there are no direct sanctions against products, but there are restrictions related to logistics, ship charter, money transfer, insurance."

"The situation is changing, changing for the better. But there are certain restrictions that still prevent us from working in terms of ensuring the interests of all consumers in the global food markets. This continues to push global market prices up," Putin said at the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF).

The 7th EEF is held from September 5-8 in Vladivostok, on the Far Eastern Federal University campus. The Sputnik news agency is an information partner of the forum.