MOSCOW, July 13. /TASS/. Sanctions against Russia turned up the pressure on global food and energy markets, President Vladimir Putin said on the air with the Rossiya-24 TV Channel.
"It was decided to put off on Russia in view of the start of the special military operation. So to say, to put the blame on someone else. This is absolutely not on us. Yes, certainly, the use of sanctions as a tool in competition; they, using these sanction policy tools, aggravated the situation on world food and energy markets. They led to such result by their actions, rather than we ratcheted it up," Putin said.
Russian authorities repeatedly highlighted in terms of the Black Sea Grain Initiative that certain items of the deal were not fulfilled, including arrangements on predominant grain supplies to the poorest countries. They also called attention to creation of obstacles to Russian food and fertilizer supplies to the global market.