MOSCOW, July 19. /TASS/. In accordance with the Russia-UN memorandum, the UN Secretariat still has 90 days for continuing its effort to normalize Russian agricultural exports before the document expires, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

"In accordance with Article 6 [of the Russia-UN memorandum], the agreement will remain in force for 3 years, and if one of the sides (Russia or UN) plans to terminate it before that date, it should send a three-month notice. Therefore, the UN Secretariat has 90 days for continuing its effort to normalize Russian food exports," the ministry said.

"This would give the UN secretary-general the 90-day period during which he planned to reconnect a subsidiary or affiliate of Rosselkhozbank to SWIFT, as was stated in the statement that he had cited," it said.

The ministry said that Russia had repeatedly informed the UN about the unfeasibility of proposals to reconnect a Rosselkhozbank subsidiary to SWIFT.

"There can be no alternatives to directly reconnecting Rosselkhozbank to SWIFT, neither via the marginal channel operated by JP Morgan, nor via the theoretical platform involving Citi and Afreximbank, nor with options involving affiliates and subsidiaries," the ministry said. "All these palliative measures are simply impossible in practice and are aimed at creating an illusion of work."

The ministry said that it had to issue public clarifications in response to the latest move by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who de-facto published his personal letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the future of the grain transportation agreement on the last day of the deal’s existence in breach of all existing principles of diplomatic correspondence.

"On the last day of the Black Sea initiative to transport Ukrainian agricultural products, the UN secretary-general issued a corresponding detailed media statement. Apart from once again twisting facts about the implementation of the Istanbul agreements, Guterres, in breach of all existing rules of diplomatic correspondent, de-facto published his personal letter addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Regrettably, the same thing happened with the previous letter, dated April 24, on the issue of the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline," the ministry said.

According to the ministry, the UN secretary-general and his Secretariat were turning a blind eye on terror attacks committed by Kiev under the guise of a humanitarian corridor and remained silent on certain facts related to the grain deal.

"Time after time, the UN secretary general and his employees have been blinking Kiev’s terror attacks and acts of sabotage," it said in a press statement.

"Under the guise of the humanitarian corridor and navigation organized under the Black Sea Initiative, the [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky regime never stopped attacking Russian civilians and military facilities, thus, trampling on the ‘letter and spirit’ of the agreement, which, as is known, envisaged safe transportation of grain and food products from Ukrainian ports," the ministry stressed.

According to the ministry, the UN Secretariat "has even failed to find the words of condolences" after Ukraine’s terror attack on the Crimean Bridge.

A package of documents geared to resolve the problem of food and fertilizer supplies on global markets was signed on July 22, 2022 in Istanbul and extended several times since then before ultimately expiring on July 17. Russia refused to extend it again because the part of the deal envisaging the removal of obstacles for Russian agricultural exports has never been implemented. Apart from that, Moscow has repeatedly stressed that the bulk of grain that was meant to be supplied to the poorest counties was shipped to Western countries. Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that Russia is ready to resurrect the deal but only after its part related to obligations to Moscow is fulfilled.