The Financial Times reported on Monday that the EU is exploring a proposal for the Russian Agricultural Bank to establish a subsidiary to link to the global financial network as a sop to Moscow.
The publication said the measure protects the Black Sea grain arrangement that permits Ukraine to export food to worldwide markets despite bank restrictions.
Last week, Russia said it saw no need to prolong the grain pact beyond July 17 because the West had acted in an “outrageous” fashion over the agreement, but it assured poor countries that Russian grain exports would continue.
The publication cited unidentified sources saying Moscow’s U.N.-brokered arrangement would let the bank unit manage grain export payments.
It said the new organization could use SWIFT, which was closed to Russia’s top banks after Ukraine’s incursion.
Olha Trofimtseva, Ukraine’s foreign ministry ambassador at large, said the EU intended “to somehow facilitate the grain deal” after the Financial Times report.
“On one side, agriculture export potential is good. “Concessions to a blackmailer encourage him to blackmail,” she wrote on Telegram.
“Blackmailers don’t quit if you comply. He just demands more.”
Russia and Ukraine dominate the main agricultural producers of wheat, barley, rapeseed, and sunflower oil markets. Russia dominates fertilizer sales.
Russia wants SWIFT access, farm machinery and components, and insurance and reinsurance restrictions lifted.
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