Putin is using Ukraine’s harvest to blackmail.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is using Ukraine’s harvest as a “blackmail tool” for the rest of the world, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Morawiecki said that the action was similar to what “Stalin did in 1933”.
In an extensive interview, he also warned that “only Putin” would be “happy” with a UK-EU trade war over the Brexit deal for Northern Ireland.
Ukraine’s inability to export its cereals has led to rising global food prices.
This has also increased the possibility of hunger in countries that depend on its exports.
Morawiecki said it was “part of Putin’s strategy” to “create ripple effects in North Africa and large waves of migration”.
He said he expected an EU-agreed embargo on Russian oil within days or weeks, with some interruptions for the Czechs, Slovakia, Hungary and Austria.
Among other things, he called for the closure of the Nordstream One gas pipeline this year.
Morawiecki said “Russia is under real pressure” from existing sanctions, but that this would have an impact in the medium and long term”.
He suggested that the Russian president was relying on rising energy and food prices, exhausting Western support for Ukraine, and that politicians should explain and mitigate the impact on prices.