Putin says world faces food crisis due to West's sanctions

 President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia must keep a close eye on its food exports to hostile countries because the West's sanctions had fomented a global food crisis and spiralling energy prices. The West's sanctions over Putin's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine have tipped Russia towards its worst economic crisis since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, though Moscow says the global impact of the sanctions could be much more significant. The Kremlin chief cautioned that higher energy prices combined with a shortage of fertilisers would prompt the West to print money to buy up supplies, leading to food shortages among poorer countries. "They will inevitably exacerbate food shortages in the poorest regions of the world, spur new waves of migration and in general drive food prices even higher," Putin told a meeting on developing food production. "In these current conditions, a shortage of fertilisers on the global market is inevitable," Putin said. "We will have to be more careful about food supplies abroad, especially carefully monitor the exports to countries which are hostile to us." One of Putin's allies warned last week that Russia could limit supplies of agriculture products to "friendly" countries only, amid Western sanctions imposed on Moscow. 

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