ISTANBUL, May 11. /TASS/. Moscow still faces serious obstacles for exports of agriculture products and fertilizers, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin said on Thursday, adding that the statements being made in Western capitals on exports of Russian agriculture products and fertilizers not sanctioned find no confirmation.

"I believe that today’s and yesterday’s discussions [in Istanbul] were useful from the viewpoint of making sense of what concerns the implementation of Istanbul agreements. Of course, we are driven by Russia’s interests and the necessity of tackling hunger and ensuring food safety. However, it should be clearly stated here that the statements being made in Washington, Brussels, London saying that Russia’s agriculture exports and exports of fertilizers are allegedly not subject to sanctions find no confirmation. Unfortunately, we still face serious barriers for our agriculture exports and exports of fertilizers. It concerns transactions, it concerns logistics and transport problems, insurance. This is why it is very important for us to make sure that Russia’s interests are fully considered and protected," he told reporters following two days of talks between representatives of Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN in Istanbul on the issues of the grain deal’s extension and the start of implementation of the Russian part of Istanbul agreements.

Vershinin sees no progress on the issue of connecting Russian Agricultural Bank (Rosselkhozbank) back to SWIFT so far either.

"The issue of connecting Rosselkhozbank back to the SWIFT system was discussed [at the Istanbul meeting]. We firmly and clearly noted what the [Istanbul] memorandum stipulates from the Russian side. We said what systemic problems should be solved. One of them is to connect Rosselkhozbank back to SWIFT. It should be noted that there is no progress in this area," he said.

Agreements on the export of food and fertilizers from Ukraine to the international market were concluded on July 22, 2022, for 120 days and extended in November for the same period. One of the agreements regulates the order of grain supplies from the Kiev-controlled ports of Odessa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny. Moreover, a memorandum was inked by Russia and the UN on lifting export restrictions for Russian agricultural products and fertilizers to global markets. Moscow notes that the second part of the agreement is not being implemented. On March 18, 2023, Russia announced that the deal was extended for 60 days, warning that this would be enough time to assess the efficacy of the memorandum signed with the UN.

The Russian Foreign Ministry also noted earlier that the future decision on the deal’s extension would depend on connection of Rosselkhozbank back to SWIFT, resumption of supplies of agriculture equipment, components and service maintenance, lifting of restrictions on insurance and reinsurance, lifting of the ban on access to ports, resumption of the work of Tolyatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline, unfreezing of foreign assets and accounts of Russian companies related to production and transportation of food and fertilizers.