Between January and August, 729 companies with Russian capital were created in Turkey, four times more than in the whole of 2021. Westerners fear that these Russian-Turkish financial exchanges will allow Moscow to circumvent the economic sanctions.
Western sanctions against Moscow short-circuited by investments in the direction of Turkey? The question arises because four times more companies with Russian capital were created in Turkey between last January and August, compared to the whole of 2021. Something to worry Westerners.
Over the first eight months of the current year, 729 companies with Russian capital were created in Turkey, mostly in the wholesale and retail sector. As a reminder, Ankara refuses for the moment to join the sanctions put in place by the West. As one European diplomat put it, “it’s one thing not to inflict sanctions on Russia, it’s another to help it circumvent them”.
Western sanctions: a boon for Turkey
According to Mitat Celikpala, a specialist in Russian-Turkish relations, there is no doubt: Western sanctions are perceived in Turkey as so many opportunities:
“In the first six months of the year alone, the volume of Russian-Turkish trade had reached the total volume of 2021. There are several factors. Turkish logistics companies are replacing American and European companies which are facing the penalties.”
By thus becoming the main transit point for goods to Russia, Turkey is however playing a risky game, in particular exposing its financial institutions to so-called “secondary” sanctions. At the end of September, Ankara gave in to American pressure and renounced the Mir payment system, which allowed Russians to continue withdrawing money in Turkey.
For Mitat Celikpala, the rise of Russian-Turkish trade has its limits: “If Russia becomes an even more aggressive player, if it widens and intensifies its attacks against Ukraine and prolongs the war, and if the West increases sanctions, then Turkey will have to choose. And it will choose the West, not Russia, so as not to end up on the losing side.”
For its part, the Turkish government denies helping Moscow escape sanctions. He argues that his so-called “balanced” position has allowed several mediations between kyiv and Moscow, in particular on the resumption of deliveries of Ukrainian cereals.