WASHINGTON, August 4. /TASS/. Attempts to accuse Russia of provoking a food crisis are an element of information warfare, because Moscow is a major contributor to the global food security, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said on Friday.
"Attempts to accuse Russia of provoking a food crisis and using ‘food as a weapon’ are a well-known element of the information war unleashed against our country," the ambassador said in a statement, released on the Russian embassy’s Telegram channel.
The diplomat is convinced that "mantras about almost ‘miraculous’ Ukrainian grain" are groundless.
"At the same time, even an outside observer understands that it is the Russian Federation that makes a significant contribution into global food security, [and] is a solid and reliable supplier of agricultural products. It is simply pointless to start comparing the possibilities of food export of our country and the one of Ukraine: the shares on world markets differ significantly!" he wrote.
The ambassador urged to remove the "sanction shackles" from the Russia-UN Memorandum on promoting Russian agricultural products to the world markets and release "hundreds of thousands of tons of fertilizers ‘stuck’ in European ports."
"Almost a year ago, we launched an initiative to send blocked chemicals to the poorest countries, and things haven't got forward an inch," he said. "There is a strong feeling that the White House is not ready to accept reasonable arguments aimed at reducing tensions on the international food markets.".