Russia used stolen grain from the occupied Melitopol to pay off Iran for the supply of missiles

Russia sold grain from the occupied territories, including Melitopol, for $6 billion. The first batches of the crop harvested in the occupied territory of the Russian Federation were sent to the foreign market in the summer of 2022. Subsequently, a mass export of grain was established. With this grain, Russia, in particular, paid off Iran for the supply of missiles.

The Russians either seize the harvest or buy it for pennies by force, threatening farmers with automatic weapons. This year alone, the Russians have exported about half a million tons of grain from the temporarily occupied territories of the Zaporizhzhia region and are planning another 200,000 tons. And so that farmers under occupation could not sell grain on their own, the “State Grain Operator” was created.

The monopolist buys the crop and sends it to the Russian Federation. It is simply impossible to sell grain on your own. As a result, the monopolist buys grain at ridiculous prices, twice lower than in Ukraine. And even lower than in Russia. And still, it has not paid farmers for years either for land rent or for grain.

State companies are involved in the business: United Shipbuilding Corporation; a company linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; the firm of Crimean businessman Mykhailo Ganaga “Agro-frigate”, which trades with Syria and Israel, and others.

According to Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Markiyan Dmytrasevich, at least 4 million tons of grain and other products were sent directly to international markets from the occupied territories by sea, which brought $800 million in revenue. Sevastopol in the annexed Crimea became the main port of export of such products, it is also exported from occupied Berdyansk and Mariupol.

This year, the Russian authorities reported that in the first half of the year, they sent 15 ships with 81,000 tons of wheat to Turkey from Mariupol. According to the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the reception of ships with products from the occupied territories is prohibited in Turkey, the country’s authorities cooperate with Kyiv in the fight against illegal trade. Large volumes of grain are also sent by small ships or overland to Russia, from where they are already sold on the international market.

The total value of grain exported by Russia from the occupied territories may reach $6.4 billion. According to Iranian politicians, recent deliveries of ballistic missiles to Russia were made in exchange for grain. According to Kateryna Yaresko, an analyst at the Kyiv-based non-commercial project SeaKrime, which tracks illegal shipments from Crimea, Tehran buys barley from Crimea at $140 per ton, a 34% discount to market prices. In addition, analysts of the Bellingcat project discovered the flights of several vessels departing from the Sevastopol grain terminal to Iran and Syria, as well as several visits to Iran by Igor Rudetskyi.

He is the general director of Sea Engineering Technopolis Si Maker, and is also associated with Aval, whose Sevastopol branch operates at the Avlita grain terminal.

Russia offers developing countries cheap grain to create new dependencies and deepens economic vulnerability as well as global food insecurity.