Turkish financial institutions began abruptly stopping processing payments from Russia at the beginning of the year, the calculations are still frozen. One of the interlocutors, the owner of a trading broker, said that accounts of Russian companies were closed back in 2022, but now the trend has intensified: previously it was primarily about companies that were subject to sanctions, but now relations with other organizations are being terminated.
The restrictions were tightened after the decree of US President Joe Biden on December 22, 2023. It allows the US Treasury to introduce measures against foreign banks that help conduct transactions with sanctioned persons from Russia or facilitate the supply of certain materials and equipment to the Russian military-industrial complex. Chinese state-owned banks have also begun to introduce restrictions on providing financing to Russian clients.
Until December Türkiye had “two omnivorous and two semi-omnivorous banks” in terms of working with Russia. The first category was threatened with inclusion in the American SDN list (Specially Designated Nationals List - a list of sanctioned persons; being included in it entails the blocking of all assets owned by the person located in the United States and a ban on American persons from any interaction with sanctioned persons). After that, they began to close the correspondent accounts of a significant part of companies and Russian banks.
“Semi-omnivorous” banks, according to the interlocutor, also began to break off relations, but mainly with those who became clients after the outbreak of full-scale hostilities in Ukraine.
Russian diplomats are in contact with the Turkish authorities on the issue of payments, said Ambassador Alexey Erkhov.
Comments
No comment yet.