MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Wednesday that a number of conditions must be met before a Black Sea maritime security deal negotiated with the United States can be activated, pointing to an earlier agreement which it said saw Moscow’s needs ignored.
The United States reached separate deals on Tuesday with Ukraine and Russia to cease fighting in the Black Sea and pause attacks against energy targets, with Washington agreeing to push to lift some sanctions against Moscow.
While Russian exports of food and fertiliser are not subject to Western sanctions, Moscow has said restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance have amounted to a barrier to shipments.
Russia wants the reconnection of its state agricultural bank Rosselkhozbank to the SWIFT international payments system. That and other steps could require agreement from European countries.
“As for the Black Sea grain initiative, it can be activated after a number of conditions are implemented,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“These are the same conditions that were included in the (original) Black Sea Initiative…all the conditions of which were fulfilled except for those concerning the Russian side. So, of course, this time round justice must prevail and we will continue our work with the Americans.”
Moscow in 2023 withdrew from the original deal, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in 2022, complaining that obstacles to its own food and fertiliser exports had not been eased as promised under the terms of that agreement.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
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