UN may offer to lift some sanctions against Russia in exchange for its return to the grain deal

During a meeting with Sergey Lavrov, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said that the UN may offer to lift some sanctions against Russia in exchange for Russia's return to the grain deal.

Anadolu reported this.

In particular, it is expected that Rosselkhozbank (Russian Agricultural Bank) will return to the SWIFT system and that restrictions will be lifted on the frozen assets of Russian fertiliser companies in Europe.

These proposals were prepared with the participation of Türkiye, and the Turkish side believes that "they will be a suitable basis for the renewal of the initiative."

Earlier, the Financial Times cited sources as saying that the EU was considering connecting a subsidiary of Rosselkhozbank to SWIFT to get Russia to agree to extend the grain deal. 

At the end of June, the EU discussed this issue during a summit in Brussels as a potential means of persuading Russia to extend the Black Sea Agreement after its termination on July 17.

However, this idea was never presented publicly. 

Later, Russian President Vladimir Putin put forward his demands for Russia's return to the Black Sea Grain Initiative. 

Among them, in particular, were the removal of sanctions on Russian grain supplies, the connection of Russian banks to SWIFT, and the "end of all restrictions" and the resumption of the Tolyatti-Odesa ammonia pipeline.

It will be recalled that on July 17, Russia withdrew from the grain deal. Putin's spokesman, Peskov, said that some of the agreements under the deal regarding Russia had allegedly not been fulfilled. Therefore, the agreement was terminated.

Photo: AA