/nginx/o/2022/12/11/15017744t1h86c8.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1 "At the request of the United Nations, Latvia will allow the export of mineral fertilizers from the sanctioned company Mazepina")
As we know, a UN Special Representative arrived in Latvia in July and started informal discussions on the possibility of transferring the mineral fertilizers stored by the Mazepina company “Riga Fertilizer Terminal” to African countries. The Foreign Minister also confirmed this.
Vladimir Putin has called the blockade of mineral fertilizers destined for the world’s poorest countries unacceptable. The president expressed this position during a working meeting with businessman Dmitry Mazepin.
These days, Russian propaganda television shows footage of the meeting between Dmitry Mazepin and the dictator Putin.
“Nothing personal,” reads one of the letters written to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by representatives of Dmitry Mazepin’s sanctioned URALHIM. In it, they not only urge Latvia to follow the UN order to “urgently ensure the availability of fertilizers to the countries most exposed to food shortages”. Uralhim also complains to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that Mazepin’s Latvian-registered company “Uralkali Trading”, which sells mineral fertilizers to Mazepin’s other related company, “Riga Fertilizer Terminal”, owes half a million euros (EUR 515.136, 12) for the storage of sanctioned cargo, so Mazepina’s people ask for a Rietumu banka access account so that this debt can be paid.
The President’s office confirms to us that Egīls Levits received in early October an official letter from the Secretary-General of the United Nations with an invitation to Latvia to support the donation of mineral fertilizers belonging to companies of Russian origin subject to Union sanctions Union located in the territory of Latvia to the countries of Africa and Latin America.
That acceptance has been given and this week it was decided in the closed-door part of the government meeting. But cooperation is possible only with the United Nations. Also in the Nehā Personīga interview, Levits reiterates that the cooperation of the Latvian authorities with sanctioned companies or persons is not possible.
The mineral fertilizers of the Mazepina sanctioned companies will be taken over as a donation. Also, the cargo, but only with the approval of Latvia, will be transferred to one of the African or Latin American countries. The country has not yet been chosen, because the quality of mineral fertilizers is currently being verified by World Food Program inspectors and ascertain their validity.
