Turkey halts delivery of sanctioned goods to Russia
Turkey has stopped the transit of Western-sanctioned goods to Russia, according to Turkish business community. The Turkish government has provided companies with a list of banned foreign goods and ordered them not to transship them to Russia from March 1, Cetin Tecdelioglu, head of the Istanbul Association of Ferrous and Non-Ferrous Metals Exporters, said on Monday. “All goods on this list are blocked for Russia, regardless of which country they come from.” A representative of the European Union confirmed this to the Reuters news agency. Ankara had verbally assured the European Commission that from March no more goods would reach Russia that were under sanctions and export controls by the EU, the US or the UK are lifted The Turkish Ministry of Commerce declined to comment.
NATO member Turkey has tried to maintain good relations with both Moscow and Kiev. It opposes the sanctions in principle, but has stated that they cannot be circumvented in Turkey and that the products supplied cannot be used for the Russian military. Given the “serious warnings” from Western countries, this is an opportunity to avoid a confrontation with the EU, to which half of Turkey’s exports go under a common customs union, business official Tecdelioglu said.