public transport stop
The customs system suddenly began to prevent customs clearance of goods intended to cross into Russia, Kommersant FM reported. It is stated that after the start of the Russian Federation’s special military operation in Ukraine, all these cargoes are covered by Western sanctions.
Market participants interviewed by the publication described Turkey’s actions as “a complete surprise”. Now they are looking for alternative ways for parallel import.
“Even yesterday, we started receiving notifications from agencies that previously agreed flight bookings were cancelled. They said the reason was that the goods that went to Turkey were not sent to Russia anymore. Last night, they started receiving letters that the Turkish customs system is preventing the transit of goods not of Turkish origin. They tried to publish it again this morning, but the system really blocks everything,” Georgy Vlastopulo, managing director of Optimalog, told Kommersant.
In response, Valeria Savenkova, commercial director of Transasia Logistics, said she was not waiting for official orders or decisions from the Turkish side, and since then Ankara had to acknowledge that Russia had helped Russia circumvent the sanctions and sent the goods under restrictions to Russia. Russian Federation.
“Information will only come out through informal channels and, roughly speaking, in practice. To date, the transit and export processing system to Russia in Turkey does not work,” he said.
Journalists noted that the market participants they interviewed attributed the suspension of the sanctioned goods to Russia with the recent visit of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to Turkey.
According to the Financial Times, the United Arab Emirates, which has become Russia’s main electronics supplier, has also come under pressure from Western countries that have imposed restrictions on Russia.
Blinken’s visit
On February 20, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrived in Turkey to meet with Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
As Izvestia stated at that time, the parties could not reach an agreement. One of the top priorities for the US Secretary of State was the entry of Sweden and Finland into NATO, which Ankara blocked. But the negotiators failed to reach an agreement here.
In addition to the support given to Ukraine, Blinken and Erdogan discussed “the need for closer cooperation on bilateral issues, including defense, energy and trade,” according to the press release from the US State Department. and collective security.”
Çavuşoğlu emphasized that Turkey will remain neutral towards Russia at the joint press conference with Blinken.
Turkey does not participate in the sanctions. We are implementing the resolutions taken by the UN,” he said, promising that Turkey would not help Moscow bypass the restrictions by doing so.
growth in trade
On October 21 last year, Deputy Minister of Economic Development Vladimir Ilyichev said that in January-September 2022, trade between Russia and Turkey amounted to $47 billion, which is double what it was in the first nine months of 2021. He then estimated that the trade turnover with Turkey for the whole of 2022 would be $60 billion or more.
According to Ilyichev, the main growth in exports to Turkey falls on energy products, but also in non-resource non-energy exports – an increase of 19% – reaching $ 10.5 billion.
“We see that deliveries to Turkey have increased and there has been a significant increase of 1.6 times in timber, cellulose, timber processing products, and up to 1.5 billion dollars in chemical industry products – plastic, rubber, etc.” said the representative, Ministry of Economic Development.
He added that Russia has increased the supply of some metal products to Turkey. At the same time, Ilyichev noted that the sanctions imposed by Europe “significantly reduced the estimates of metal product supply in Turkey that we just had.”
“Overall, despite the logistical difficulties, there is a noticeable increase in export deliveries with Turkey and a noticeable increase in deliveries and imports for obvious reasons,” he said.
Following the results of the negotiations with Blinken at the end of February, the Sergeant said that the growth in trade between Turkey and Russia was due to the increase in the cost of natural gas that Ankara bought from Moscow.
“Actually, our trade turnover with Russia has grown, but 60 percent of this is in the purchase of energy resources. Unfortunately, because of the war, the price of gasoline tripled. And therefore, the volume of trade turnover has grown,” he said.