The Kremlin confirmed today that Russia renewed the Black Sea Grain Agreement for two months after achieving some results in the talks they gave her “some hope”but said that more progress must be made for its own interests.

The Turkish president Recep Erdogan he announced the extension in a televised address on Wednesday and it was later confirmed by Russia, Ukraine and the United Nations.

The United Nations and Turkey struck the deal — allowing Ukraine to export grain from Black Sea ports — for an initial 120 days in July last year to help address a global food crisis exacerbated by Russia’s war on Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special military operation”.

Moscow had initially appeared reluctant to extend the deal unless a series of demands on its own agricultural exports were met.

Commenting on the renewal of the agreement, the representative of the Kremlin Dmitry Peskov stated that a “certified result”, as he called it, for Russia in negotiations on easing restrictions on Russian agricultural exports.

In a video conference with reporters, Peskov said various scenarios were being considered for easing restrictions on international payment transfers at Russia’s state-run Agricultural Bank, a key demand of Moscow in the talks.

“Regarding guarantees for Rosselkhozbank — various options were explored that would amount to reversing its exclusion from the SWIFT payment system,” he said.

“There is some hope based on the negotiations that have taken place so far,” he said.

The Kremlin spokesman indicated, however, that Moscow wants to see more progress in the next two months.

“It is very important to understand that the fate of the agreement is still in the hands of those with whom the UN must agree on the Russian part of the agreement.”said Peskov.

“A certain part of the road has been traveled — there are results — but not definitively. We will try to resolve this issue definitively within these 60 days.”

He added that talks on the export of ammonia from a Russian city to a Ukrainian port through a pipeline (Tolyatti-Odessa pipeline) are ongoing.

For his part, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said today that Moscow had agreed to renew the Black Sea grain deal for two months, although he saw no results in implementing parts of the deal for Russia.

Speaking at a press conference with his Ugandan counterpart, Lavrov said the agreement aims to strengthen the food security of the world’s poorest people.

Lavrov denied that Russia’s renewal of the agreement, to which Turkey partially contributed, has anything to do with Turkey’s presidential election.