Putin on Grain Exports from Ukraine

The Hot New Attack on Russia is that Ukraine has umpty-tons of grain ready to export but Putin won't let it happen.

Here's Putin's comment on the matter, cadged from Wauck.  (Google translated)

...Pavel Zarubin:  But Russia is being accused from very high rostrums of the fact that there is grain in reality, but it is in Ukrainian ports, and Russia allegedly does not allow this grain to be exported.

Vladimir Putin:  This is a bluff. And that's why.

...

As for the export of Ukrainian grain, we do not prevent it. And there are several ways to export grain.

The first. Please, you can export through the ports that are under the control of Ukraine, primarily the Black Sea basin - Odessa and nearby ports. It was not we who mined the approaches to the port - it was Ukraine who mined it.

I have already told all our colleagues many times: let them clear mines, and please let the ships loaded with grain leave the ports. We guarantee their peaceful passage without any problems into international waters. There is no problem please.

They must clear mines and raise ships from the bottom of the Black Sea that were deliberately sunk in order to make it difficult to enter these ports in southern Ukraine. We are ready to do this, we will not use the demining situation to launch any attacks from the sea, as I have already said. This is the first.

Second. There is another possibility: the ports of the Sea of ​​Azov - Berdyansk, Mariupol - are under our control, we are ready to ensure the smooth export of Ukrainian grain through these ports. Please.

...

But for this it is necessary to remove sanctions from Belarus. But this is not our issue. In any case, the President of Belarus Alexander Grigoryevich [Lukashenko] puts the question in this way: if someone wants to solve the problem, if it exists at all, the export of Ukrainian grain, please, the easiest way is through Belarus. Nobody interferes.

So there is no problem with the export of grain from Ukraine.

Pavel Zarubin:  What could be the logistics of export from those ports that are under our control? What can be the conditions?

Vladimir Putin:  No conditions.

Please, we will ensure peaceful passage, guarantee the safety of approaches to these ports, ensure the entry of foreign ships and their movement along the Azov and Black Seas in any direction.

By the way, there are a lot of foreign ships stuck in Ukrainian ports today, dozens of ships. They are simply kept locked up there, and, by the way, the crews are still being held hostage....

Or you can believe Biden, the CIA, and the State Department.

That's a no-brainer, as they say.