(Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin warned of a looming global food crisis and said he would discuss amending a landmark grain deal with Ukraine to limit the countries that can receive shipments.
GRAIN
* Putin said Russia and the developing world had been “cheated” by the grain deal and that he would discuss “limiting the destinations for grain and other food exports” with Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan, who helped broker the deal to free up exports from Ukraine’s southern ports in July.
* Putin also said some restrictions on Russia’s fertiliser exports had been eased, but problems remained, pledging to revise the deal to ensure it reaches its original goals.
* Russia earlier questioned the U.N.-brokered deal at the United Nations, accusing Western states of failing to honour pledges to help facilitate Russia’s shipments.
* A Ukrainian presidential adviser said Russia had no grounds to review the deal allowing Ukraine to export grain from ports in the Black Sea and that the terms of the agreement were being strictly observed.
ENERGY
* Putin described Europe’s idea for a price cap on Russian gas as “stupid”, said it would lead to price rises and that global demand for Russian energy was high.
* Putin also said Russia had agreed all the key parameters to sell gas to China via Mongolia.
* Myanmar has started buying Russian oil products and is ready to pay for deliveries in roubles, the RIA news agency cited junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing as saying.
* Italy could consider lowering the heating temperature in industrial and residential buildings by 2 degrees Celsius in case of a “catastrophe” over Russian gas flows, the minister for ecological transition told Corriere della Sera.
* U.N. chief Guterres urged Russia and Ukraine to agree to a demilitarized perimeter around the Russian-held Zaporozhzhia nuclear power plant.
* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow had requested “additional explanations” from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on their report from a visit to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Interfax news agency reported.
FIGHTING
* Ukrainian forces have attacked the Russian-held eastern town of Balakliia in the Kharkiv region, a senior pro-Moscow separatist official said, as Ukrainian officials remained guarded about how their counter-offensive was faring.
* The Russian-installed commandant of a southern Ukrainian city was seriously wounded in a blast, an official said, the latest in a series of apparent assassination attempts in occupied areas.
DIPLOMACY/POLITICS
* Putin said the West was failing because a futile and aggressive attempt to isolate Russia with sanctions was destroying the global economy just as Asia was rising to claim the future.
* Russia could be about to buy “literally millions” of artillery shells and rockets from old Cold War ally North Korea, the White House said.
ECONOMY/MARKETS
* The head of Russia’s VTB said the banking sector had largely overcome the most serious effects of Western sanctions and that systemic capitalisation of Russian banks was likely not needed.
* The U.S. Treasury is seeking to design a simple compliance regime for enforcing a price cap on Russian oil exports and hopes that China and India join the coalition or at least take advantage of it, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said.
(Compiled by Stephen Coates and Philippa Fletcher)
