MOSCOW (Reuters) – Chechnya's Kremlin-backed leader Ramzan Kadyrov has said he is ready to intervene if necessary and ensure Syria gets the wheat it needs, in what he says is the unlikely case was that Russia's wheat supply to the country would be disrupted.
Russian and Syrian sources told Reuters on Friday that deliveries of Russian wheat to Syria had been suspended due to uncertainty over the new government there after two ships carrying Russian wheat for Syria failed to reach their destinations.
In a message posted on his Telegram channel on Sunday, Kadyrov said the two diverted ships were carrying “commercial” wheat and that Russian state-backed supplies to Syria had not been affected.
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“Even if this happens for some impossible and unbelievable reasons, I, as head of the Chechen Republic, am ready to take responsibility and guarantee the necessary amount of wheat for Syria,” Kadyrov wrote.
Russia, the world's largest wheat exporter, supplies wheat to Syria through complex financial and logistical arrangements, circumventing Western sanctions imposed on both countries. It is not clear what share of wheat is supplied by the state.
Kadyrov did not specify how he would organize and finance wheat deliveries to Syria if he had to intervene and where the wheat would come from.
But he said he could act if necessary through a charitable fund named after his late father, which helped rebuild some mosques and provided humanitarian aid to Syria during the rule of deposed President Bashar al-Assad.
Russian analysts estimate Russian exports to Syria at 300,000 tons so far this season, with the country ranking 24th among Russian wheat buyers. They estimate Syria's total wheat imports at about 2 million tons.
Russia is the main supplier of wheat to Syria, and supply disruption could cause hunger in the country of more than 23 million people. Sources told Reuters that the two sides are in contact about deliveries.
(Reporting by Olga Popova and Gleb Bryanski; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
