- He has called the war a special military operation to rid Ukraine of dangerous nationalists and Nazis.
- Putin said last Thursday that food prices would rise globally due to soaring fertiliser prices if the West created problems for Russia’s export of fertilisers, which account for 13% of world output.
- EuroChem has production assets in Russia, Lithuania, Belgium, Brazil and Kazakhstan.
Because fertiliser prices are growing so quickly that many farmers can no longer afford soil nutrients, a global food crisis is looming unless the war in Ukraine is ended. Andrei Melnichenko, a Russian fertiliser and coal magnate, said as reported by Reuters.
Special military operation
Several of Russia’s richest businessmen have publicly called for peace since President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion on Feb. 24, including Mikhail Fridman, Pyotr Aven and Oleg Deripaska.
The United States and its European allies have cast Putin’s invasion as an imperial-style land grab.
He has called the war a special military operation to rid Ukraine of dangerous nationalists and Nazis.
“We urgently need peace,” Melnichenko, 50, who is Russian but was born in Belarus and has a Ukrainian mother, told Reuters in a statement emailed by his spokesman.
“One of the victims of this crisis will be agriculture and food,” he said.
Food war?
Putin said last Thursday that food prices would rise globally due to soaring fertiliser prices if the West created problems for Russia’s export of fertilisers, which account for 13% of world output.
Russia is a major producer of potash, phosphate and nitrogen-containing fertilisers – major crop and soil nutrients.
EuroChem, which produces nitrogen, phosphates and potash, says it is one of the world’s top five fertiliser companies.
Food supply chains already disrupted by COVID-19 were now even more distressed.
Russia’s a trade and industry ministry told the country’s fertiliser producers to temporarily halt exports earlier this month.
Physics student
Melnichenko, who was just 19 when the Soviet Union collapsed, started out trading foreign currency while a physics student at Moscow State University.
His fortune in 2021 was estimated by Forbes to be $18 billion, making him Russia’s eighth richest man.
The European Union on Wednesday sanctioned Melnichenko for Russia’s invasion.
“He has no political affiliations,” his spokesman said.
“To draw a parallel between attending a meeting through membership in a business council, just as dozens of business people from both Russia and Europe have done in the past, and undermining or threatening a country is absurd and nonsensical,” the spokesman said, adding Melnichenko will dispute the sanctions.
EuroChem has production assets in Russia, Lithuania, Belgium, Brazil and Kazakhstan.
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Source: Reuters
