Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said on Tuesday that sanctions against Moscow threatened "catastrophic consequences" for the global food market.
He also said that issues related to global food security could not be resolved unless what he called the West's "illegitimate obstacles" to Russian business were removed.
Patrushev, whose comments were published by the government's Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper, was speaking to other security officials from the BRICS countries in South Africa.