Market News & Headlines >> Russia Again Threatens to Pull Out of Export Deal

Russian has again threatened to withdraw from the export deal that allows Ukraine to export grain and other agricultural products through a “safe corridor” of the Black Sea unless barriers to its agricultural exports are removed.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that he and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu discussed a “failure” to implement the terms of the deal, Reuters News Service reported. Lavrov said Russia could work outside the grain deal if Western countries maintain what he said were obstacles to agricultural exports that were getting tougher.

Lavrov said that Russian grain and fertilizer exports were affected by a lack of access to insurance and to the SWIFT financial messaging system. He also called on European countries that he said have a surplus of Ukrainian grain to donate some of it to poor countries.