The Kremlin said Thursday that Russia had been prepared since late 2021 for the food crisis that hit the world with the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine in February 2022.

Kremlin advisor Maxim Orechkine revealed to a youth forum in Moscow that "the main cause of world hunger that will occur this year is the ill-considered economic measures of the United States and the European Union," referring to the sanctions that have hit Russia, undermining its ability to export fertilizer and wheat.

The official, quoted by Russian agencies and Lusa, stressed that Russian President Vladimir Putin had prepared the country for the consequences of a world food crisis as early as the end of 2021, i.e. before the offensive against Ukraine in February 2022, which Moscow denied it was preparing at the time, when fears of a conflict were already causing world food prices to soar.

"Vladimir Vladimirovitch [Putin] understood that these [food] issues could affect Russia. So already at the end of last year, we began to actively prepare Russia for world hunger," he stressed.

At the time, Russia was facing food price inflation and introduced restrictions or taxes on exports of grain, oil and fertilizer.

"This allows us to be confident," Orechkine said yesterday.

According to Moscow, it was not the invasion of its army into Ukraine - one of the largest exporters of wheat in the world - that caused a food crisis, but rather Western sanctions in retaliation for the Russian offensive.