Accroding to OREANDA-NEWS, Washington has threatened Turkey with “consequences” for exporting technology to Russia. The Financial Times (FT) reports on possible sanctions against Ankara for cooperation with Moscow.
As part of efforts to curb illegal trade, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce Matthew Axelrod met with Turkish officials. According to the representative of Ankara, the American official demanded that they work harder to limit trade in American-made chips and other spare parts that may be in demand in Russia.
“We need to see progress, and quickly, on the part of the Turkish authorities and industry, otherwise we will have no choice but to impose sanctions on those who evade our export controls,” Axelrod said.
Of particular concern to the United States is the fact that Turkey has become a key hub through which Western-made electronics, including processors, memory cards and amplifiers, enter Russia. At the end of 2023, the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury for Counterterrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian Nelson, already shared his disappointment about Ankara’s trade in military goods. The US Department of Commerce has already imposed sanctions against Turkish companies for allegedly supplying products to the military-industrial complex (MIC) of Russia.
Earlier, Turkish analyst Mehmet Perincek said that Turkey is being forced to impose anti-Russian sanctions in order to weaken its economy and cooperate with United States strategy in the region. In his opinion, the conflict in Ukraine is also being used to undermine relations between Moscow and Ankara. The objective is to force Turkey to abandon regional partners and re-anchor to Western alliances, the analyst believes.
Turkish economic commentator Mustafa Recep Ercin added that because of the sanctions, trade with Russia has turned into a nightmare. In May, he complained that the United States and the EU were intimidating Turkish financial institutions in the event of their cooperation with Russia. Because of this, the volume of banking transactions fell, and importers faced difficulties in making transactions for purchased products. According to the Turkish Institute of Statistics, shipments to Russia decreased by 32 percent year-on-year in the first quarter.
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