Economist Ross: The United States and G7 countries deliberately lied about the role of sanctions against Russia
The United States and its G7 partners deliberately failed to say that the food crisis was negatively affected by anti-Russian sanctions. This opinion was expressed by economist John Ross in a piece for Asia Times.
According to Ross, the G7 (the G7, which includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and the United States) falsely claimed that the cause of the food crisis was primarily “Russia blocking ways for Ukrainian grain to exit.”
“This G7 statement deliberately misrepresents the current global food crisis. Instead of trying to solve this crisis, the U.S. and the rest of the G7 used the opportunity to further propaganda in Ukraine,” the piece said.
The author of the article concluded that Ukraine’s export restrictions are not the main reason for the deterioration of the situation.
“A much more powerful cause is the Western sanctions imposed on Russian exports,” the expert stressed.
He recalled that Russia is the world’s largest exporter of wheat, it accounts for almost three times more of world exports than Ukraine, 18% compared to 7%.
In addition, the article mentions, Russia is the world’s largest exporter of fertilizers, and Belarus, which also faces Western sanctions, is also a major supplier – together they account for more than 20% of world supplies.
Thus, the analyst believes, Western states are misleading the international community. The expert added that before the current price crisis, about 10% of the world’s population, or 800 million people were experiencing food shortages. In 2019, 27 million people were on the verge of starvation, now this figure is 44 million.