Russia’s Deputy Chairman of the Security Council and former President Dmitry Medvedev has issued a threat to the western countries that Moscow.
In his Telegram channel, Medvedev suggested that Russia might limit exports of agricultural supplies to “unfriendly” countries in response to their sanctions, outlining what he calls simple yet important aspects relating to Russia’s food security.
“We will export food and agricultural plants to our friends only (luckily, we have many of them, not in Europe or North America). We will sell them for both rubles and their national currency in a predetermined proportion… We will not export food or agricultural plants to our enemies. We are not going to buy things from them either,” he wrote.
Medvedev added that Russia banned most food supplies from the west in 2014 when it annexed Crimea. Now, it is ready to expand the list.
“So, here is it how it works. We will have breakfast by ourselves “croissant, fried eggs, cheese, and coffee emojis.” We might share lunch with our friends “salad, soup, rice bowl and steamed chicken emojis.” But we will not give dinner to our enemies “ice cream, milkshake, tea.” They don’t deserve it. We will eat it instead and do even more sports in the morning “heavy weightlifting, badminton, and cycling emojis,” he wrote.
The statement is the latest in a series of Russian threats toward the West. Last week, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin issued a gas-for-ruble demand that was supposed to be satisfied by April 1.
After Germany and others refused to submit to the ultimatum, the Kremlin announced that the shift will be made gradually.
According to Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, the gas-for-ruble demand applies to the current gas supplies, which will be paid for in the second part of April or early May. He also suggested that the ultimatum might be canceled if the circumstances change.
Earlier this week, Russia’s Minister of Defense Sergey Shoigu promised to provide western countries looking to arm Ukraine with advanced weapons with “an appropriate response.”
Medvedev’s latest statement plays into the assumption that Russia is trying to weaponize food supplies to create a global food supplies crisis.
