Moscow: German FM Annalena Baerbock either stupid or misleading public

Russia has denied any responsibility for soaring food prices and a looming global hunger crisis in a sharply worded riposte to accusations made against it by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Saturday.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that food prices worldwide were rising "because of sanctions imposed by the collective West, under pressure from the US."

Moreover, she said, another reason for the global food crisis lay in the collapse of Ukrainian statehood, for which the West was also to blame. "Failure to understand this is a sign either of stupidity or of deliberately misleading of the public," Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel.