The Russian Head of State, who received his Turkish counterpart, welcomed the agreement on deliveries of Ukrainian cereals, also advantageous for Moscow, and praised the role of Ankara in the transit of gas Russian to Europe.
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It was in the summer residence of the Russian Head of State, on the edges of the Black Sea, that Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and his counterpart Vladimir Putin spoke out head to face during Almost four hours, Friday August 5. “Today, of course, the eyes of the whole world are turned towards Sochi,” said the Turkish leader, crowned with his unmissable mediator status between Moscow and kyiv.
From the start of the interviews, the chief of the Kremlin thanked his host for having negotiated and implemented the cereal agreement, supervised from Istanbul by officials of Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations. “Thanks to your direct participation and the mediation of the UN secretariat, the problem of exports of Ukrainian cereals from the ports of the Black Sea has been resolved. Deliveries have already started and I wanted to thank you”, said Mr. Putin.
On the same day, three boats carrying thousands of tonnes of corn were able to leave the Ukrainian ports. A first ship was released on Monday 1 er August, from the Ukrainian port of Odessa, located 800 kilometers west of Sochi. The cereal agreement is advantageous for Russia, which will be able to export its cereals and fertilizers, despite Western financial sanctions, slightly relaxed thanks to the good offices of Ankara. In the common press release published after the talks, the two leaders stressed “the need for a complete achievement of the global agreement concluded in Istanbul, including the export without hindrances of cereals and Russian fertilizers”. >
The discussions were held under the seal of confidentiality. There was no press conference after the meeting and Mr. Erdogan, who came in neighbor for the afternoon, quickly left Russia once it was finished.
In addition to cereal exports and the situation in northern Syria, where the Turkish army is preparing a new foray against the Syrian Kurds Allied with Westerners, it was mainly about energy. Vladimir Putin insisted on the role played by Ankara in the russian gas routing to European homes through the Turkstream gas pipeline, which crosses the Black Sea. “European consumers should be grateful to Turkey for this uninterrupted flow of natural gas,” he said.
Dependent on Russia for its consumption of gas and oil, Turkey, currently faced with rampant inflation (80 % on an annual average, according to official figures), hopes to be able to maintain affordable prices for the energy that She consumes. In one year, the price of the liter of petrol to the pump increased by 300 %, aroused a wave of dissatisfaction among the population. Trying to limit the surge in energy prices is a priority for President Erdogan, whose popularity runs out less than a year from the presidential and legislative elections, scheduled for June 2023.
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