Russia snubs UN proposal to rejoin Black Sea grain deal

Russia on Saturday stressed again that it was not willing to rejoin the Black Sea grain deal unless its demands are met.

"All our conditions are perfectly well known. They do not need interpretation; they are absolutely concrete and all this is absolutely achievable," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday, according to Reuters.

Russia left the United Nations-backed deal in July, accusing Western countries of receiving the bulk of grain deliveries from the agreement and refusing to lift sanctions on Russia. Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was ready to rejoin the deal only if restrictions on Russian agricultural exports were dropped.

In August, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres reportedly sent Moscow some proposals in a bid to convince Russia to rejoin the deal. The U.N. proposals included giving a Luxembourgish subsidiary of the Russian Agricultural Bank access to the SWIFT international payments system.

But, on Saturday, Peskov made clear that this offer was not sufficient, as he demanded that the Russian Agricultural Bank itself, not a subsidiary, should have access to the international payments system.

His comments come as the EU again criticized Russia for leaving the deal — which was struck in July of last year and ensured almost 33 million tons of crops were able to leave Ukraine’s blockaded ports under escort from Turkey.

Speaking at a G20 summit in India on Saturday, European Council President Charles Michel spoke directly to Russia’s representative at the meeting, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, accusing him and his country of "cynicism."

"Not only have you decided to pull out of this agreement on the Black Sea, but at the same time you are attacking the port infrastructures," Michel said.