Turkey cuts exports to Russia by one third due to threat of US sanctions

The volume of supplies from Turkey to Russia in February decreased by 33% to $670 million compared to $1 billion in the same period in 2023. This was reported by the Russian media with reference to the data of the Turkish Ministry of Trade, UNN reports .

In the first two months of the year, Turkish exports to Russia amounted to $1.29 billion. A year earlier, it exceeded $2 billion. Currently, Russia accounts for only 3.2% of Turkey's total exports. In February, Germany ($1.72 billion) and the United States ($1.33 billion) became the leaders in this indicator,

Details

Imports from Russia to Turkey also dropped by more than a third (36.65%) last month, from $2 billion to $1.3 billion year-on-year.

A similar trend was observed in January. At that time, exports from Turkey to Russia dropped by 39%, to $631 million, compared to $1 billion in the same period in 2023. For a number of goods, trade has completely stopped. In particular, this affected machinery.

Addendum

The reason for the reduction in trade was the risk of secondary US sanctions. On December 22, 2023, U.S. President Joe Biden authorized the Treasury Department to impose restrictions on foreign financial institutions that help service transactions involving sanctioned persons from Russia or facilitate the supply of equipment to the Russian military-industrial complex.

After that, banks in Turkey began to reconsider their relations with clients from Russia for fear of losing access to the dollar, which accounts for almost half of global financial transactions. The situation also affected Russian oil exporters, who stopped receiving money for barrels sold to Ankara.

In addition, in early February, Turkish banks began closing accounts of Russian companies.

Recall

The largest banks in the UAE have restricted settlements with Russia and started closing client accounts due to the risk of secondary sanctions.