Ankara intends to continue a balanced policy towards Moscow and Kyiv

Turkey intends to continue not to join the sanctions against Russia, while continuing to provide assistance to Ukraine. This was stated by the official representative of the President of Turkey, Ibrahim Kalin, in an interview with Anadolu.

“We do not join the sanctions against Russia, but at the same time we continue our support for Ukraine, taking territorial integrity as a basis. We have implemented this balanced policy so far and will continue to implement it,” leads his words to RIA Novosti.

Kalyn also said that Russia is not receiving the logistics and insurance services prescribed under the grain deal.

“They talk about it initially, point to the UN conditions [в контексте сделки]and here they are right,” he said (quote according to TASS).

Sanctions against Russian grain have not been imposed, but European transport companies, which mainly serve such flights, are afraid of secondary sanctions and try to stay away from it, Kalyn explained.

The trade turnover between Russia and Turkey doubled from January to September 2022 and reached $45 billion, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in December. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, following the results of February talks with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, explained such dynamics by rising gas prices, which the country buys from Russia.

March 9 Türkiye stopped transit of sanctioned cargoes going through its territory to Russia. This was reported to Vedomosti in the Community of Top Managers of Logistics Companies (STMLK) and in companies in the transport sector. The European Commission then told Vedomosti that the EU customs can not block the re-export of sanctioned goods to Russia through Turkey, but controls the movement of European goods to step up the fight against sanctions circumvention.

March 15 Russian Ambassador to Turkey Alexei Yerkhov confirmedthat Russian and Turkish companies are faced with tougher rules for the transit of goods to Russia. March 21 Kommersant informedthat Türkiye has resumed the transit of sanctioned goods to Russia with some restrictions. So, the scheme does not work for products from the USA and Canada.