The battle of narratives between the West and Russia over the Ukraine war has reached the United Nations this week. European leaders have used their General Assembly to try to dismantle the "tangle of lies", in the words of the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, which Vladimir Putin uses to blame the Union for the energy and food crisis that is shaking the world
But not everything, however, is really lies, as Brussels has secretly admitted regarding Russia's fertilizer exports to third countries in Africa and Latin America, one of the most recurrent elements of the Kremlin's rhetoric to blame sanctions from the West of global food security problems, especially after an agreement this summer allowed millions of tons of wheat to leave Ukraine.
The Russian president did not go to the UN, but in the days before the meeting he blamed the EU for the global food crisis and called it cynical for blocking 300,000 tons of fertilizers destined for the Caribbean, Africa and India while lifting restrictions on its own market. Russia is willing to give them away for free if Europe lets them out, Putin said, news that was widely echoed on the African continent, for example.
In his opening speech at the General Assembly, its Secretary General, António Guterres, did not single out anyone, but echoed these concerns and called for the lifting of “all remaining obstacles to the export of Russian fertilizers and their components, including ammonia. "Without fertilizer in 2022, there will not be enough food in 2023," Guterres warned.
The European Commission took advantage of the extraordinary council of foreign affairs ministers held that night in New York to present new guidelines on the application of sanctions. The new text makes it explicit that fertilizers, coal and other products from Russia, although they cannot be imported into the European Union, can cross community territory to reach the rest of the world. It also states that insurance companies and banks can work with transport operators in the export of these goods.
Despite the fact that European leaders have reiterated that their six rounds of sanctions against Russia are not directed against agricultural products or fertilizers from this country, as they made clear in April and July, in practice this has not been the case and only because of the overzealousness of some companies when it comes to doing business with Moscow in the current context. The two guidelines approved by the Commission in August on the application of sanctions were unanimously interpreted by international operators as an export ban by prohibiting European insurers and financial services and transport companies from participating in these activities.
Government reactions to Brussels' discreet mea culpa ranged between shock and anger, diplomatic sources say. "The paradox is that what it says now is what the original decisions said," underline these sources, perplexed by the error of the European Commission. “It is evident that sanctions are a very complex matter to manage and all their consequences must be monitored.”
"There is a very simple solution to solve the food crisis that is coming: for Russia to stop the war, withdraw from Ukrainian territory and lift the blockade of the ports," European Council President Charles Michel said on Friday, accusing Putin of waging a hybrid war that mixes "the violence of arms with the poison of lies." Corrected the tangle of fertilizers, European diplomacy returns relatively satisfied from the last battle for the story of the war in Ukraine, although rather for external reasons. "There is a subtle but marked shift in the attitude of Putin's allies," says a senior European official, referring to the latest statements by the leaders of India and Turkey and the admission that there is concern in China. “Some are beginning to see that the war has lasted too long and has consequences not only for Ukraine. But it is not like to relax and congratulate ourselves, there is a lot of work to be done in this diplomatic war.
