On 19 July, RF president V. Putin came to Tehran with an official visit. At the end of the visit he attended a short press-conference. Quotes from his answers are provided below:
Putin answered the question of whether a meeting between him and Zelensky is possible
President Erdogan is doing a lot to create the necessary conditions to normalise the situation. There were well-known negotiations in Istanbul, when we actually reached an agreement, the only thing remained was to initialise it. But as you know, after this and after creating these conditions, our troops withdrew from Central Ukraine, from Kyiv, the Kyiv authorities refused to fulfil these agreements. They *agreements* have actually been achieved. So the end result does not depend on the mediators, but on the desire of the contracting parties to fulfil the agreements. We see today that the Kyiv authorities have no such desire.
As for the efforts of Turkey, as well as other countries, for example, Saudi Arabia offers its mediation conditions, the UAE, they have such opportunities. We are grateful to all our friends who are interested in a settlement for providing the opportunities. Even the desire to contribute to a noble cause is already worth a lot.
“We must receive it. This is our property” – Putin about the turbine for the Nord Stream, which was sent for repairs from Germany to Canada:
Now we are being told that we will get this machine from Canada. But so far, Gazprom has no official documents on this matter. This is the property of Gazprom. And Gazprom should receive not only metal, but the documents for it. We must understand what Gazprom is going to receive. What condition was the machine in? And what is its legal status? Is it under sanctions or not? Tomorrow they might take it away from us.
Putin talked about the reliability of Gazprom:
Gazprom has always fulfilled, fulfils and intends to fulfil its obligations. The fact that our partners are trying to shift their own mistakes onto Russia, onto Gazprom, this has no basis.
Putin told the details of negotiations with Erdogan on the grain issue:
The Republic of Turkey and President Erdogan personally did a lot to reach an agreement on the export of Ukrainian grain. But initially we put the question in such a way that it should be packaged. Namely: we will facilitate the export of Ukrainian grain, but we come from the fact that all restrictions related to the supply of Russian grain will be lifted. Nobody has objected so far. Including American partners. Let’s see what comes out of this. As you know, the restrictions on Russian fertilisers have been lifted by the Americans. I hope that if they sincerely want to improve the situation, the same will happen with the export of Russian grain. Now we are ready: the export potential is 30 million tons of grain, according to the results of the current year there will be 50.
The US must lift all restrictions on Russian grain exports if they want to improve the situation on the food market
Putin on energy crisis in the EU:
The winter turned out to be long, there was no wind, that’s all
Nord Stream 2 can be launched to supply gas to Europe, but it is already half used in the domestic market of Russia.
Putin called the West’s ideas to limit the supply of Russian oil bogus, noting that as a result, oil prices will skyrocket.
Putin on non-traditional relationships:
European countries are great experts in the field of non-traditional relationships.
