Geoffrey Smith 

Investing.com — The Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi called Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday night to ease the strain on global grain markets. He hoped to convince Russia to permit Ukrainian vessels free passage from its Black Sea ports to international markets. 

Putin replied by asking Draghi to lift western sanctions against his country. He also reminded him, at most obliquely, of Russia’s capability to resolve Italy’s increasing energy crisis.

They were very different in their readings of the conference call. Draghi’s brief stated only two phrases, stating that they were discussing developments in Ukraine as well as efforts to resolve the crisis of food and its serious repercussions on poor countries.

Putin’s speech, on the other hand, was four paragraphs long. For preventing the food flow out of ports of the Black Sea or Sea of Azov, he blamed Ukraine. He also blamed West’s stimulus policies during the Pandemic Era.

Vladimir Putin pointed out the “unjust accusations” made against Russia regarding the supply of agricultural goods to global markets. The Kremlin stated that they were aware of the connection between the problems and the financial strategies of the western nations during the coronavirus outbreak. He said that these problems were made more difficult by sanctions placed by the West against Russia after the launch of “special military operations”, which the Kremlin calls today.

According to the Kremlin, Putin suggested Draghi that he would offer him a “quid pro quo”. 

“The Russian Federation is prepared to make its substantial contribution to overcoming the food crisis through exports of grain and fertilizer, on condition that the politically motivated limitations imposed by the western side are lifted,”  the Kremlin said.

With a subtle reference to Italy’s dependence upon Russian energy imports as the end of the Kremlin’s readingout, Eni, the oil-and gas company in Italy (BIT:), recently reacted to a unilateral revision of Gazprom’s gas supply agreement (MCX:), causing it to have to pay in rubles. This move is widely considered to be a breach of European solidarity with Russia. It has thwarted the efforts by the Commission to impose an embargo against Russian fuel and oil imports before the end.

“Russia’s desire for continuing supplying natural gas from Italy was confirmed in the discussion on energy security,” said the Kremlin. 

The readouts of both sides did not mention the possibility that Russia might default on its sovereign debt in the next days. According to U.S. Treasury, this week it decided not to renew the temporary waiver from current sanctions which was used for servicing Russia’s dollars-based debt.