Jakarta. Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed any notion that his country was to blame for a looming global food crisis due to the conflict in Ukraine as he met with visiting Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Thursday.

Russian media quoted Putin as saying that Russia has not “put any restrictions on the export of fertilizers, nor on the export of food products".

Putin instead blamed Western sanctions imposed on Russia, according to Moscow Times. 

He said that by targeting the owners of fertilizer companies, Western sanctions have "created conditions that made it much more difficult" to deliver certain products internationally. 

During the meeting with Jokowi, Putin said Russia is ready to satisfy the demand of agricultural producers from Indonesia and other friendly states for nitrogen, phosphate, potash fertilizers, and raw materials for their production.

"We talked on issues of interest for the time being for the whole world, all countries. I mean supplies of foodstuffs, other agricultural goods, including mineral fertilizers, to global markets," Putin was quoted by TASS news agency as saying.

"We certainly intend to continue performing in good faith our contractual commitments on supplies of foodstuffs, fertilizers, along with energy resources and other critical goods," he added. 

Jokowi arrived in Moscow on Thursday after he visited Kyiv and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a day earlier.

During his meeting with Zelensky, he invited the Ukrainian leader to the G-20 Summit of which Indonesia currently holds the presidency.

Putin is invited to the summit in Bali too but Jokowi is under pressure from western countries not to include Russia in the summit.