ST. PETERSBURG, June 17. /TASS/. The global food crisis has broken out due to the Western countries’ actions, but not due to the special military operation, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday at a meeting with leaders and representatives of African nations.

"The crisis on the world’s food market is in no way a consequence of Russia’s special operation in Ukraine, as it had started to take shape long before the situation in Ukraine. And it erupted because Western countries, both the US and European countries, began to get involved in unjustified - economically unjustified - emission in order to solve their problems related to the coronavirus epidemic," the Russian president said.

"In fact, carrying out a huge emission, there was about nine trillion dollars in the US and roughly five trillion euros in Europe, they were sweeping away, like a vacuum cleaner, all food products from the global market for themselves, abusing their monopoly position and putting the developing countries at a disadvantage. I will not elaborate on this, but it is, as we say, a medical fact, or an obvious thing," Putin added.