Russia’s weaponising of wheat won’t hurt the world

WHEAT is the world’s most important staple – and so, perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s also been wielded as a powerful weapon. Luckily for the world, this time around it’s mostly proving to be a dud.

The US weaponised the cereal against the Soviet Union in 1980, when former president Jimmy Carter imposed a wheat embargo on its Cold War rival in response to the invasion of Afghanistan. Four decades and another Russian invasion later, it’s Vladimir Putin who’s dragging wheat into war, imposing an embargo on Ukrainian grain exports that could cost the nation as much as US$800 million a month in badly needed hard currency.

The West has limited options to respond. Short of Nato nations providing escorts for Ukrainian grain shipments and risking direct confrontation with Moscow, Russia has the upper hand.