Türkiye Stops Transit of Sanctioned Goods to Russia

Türkiye stopped transiting goods to Russia that were subject to Western sanctions in March, after a year of war in Ukraine and increasing pressure on Ankara from the US and Europe.

The Turkish government has handed companies a list of banned foreign goods and ordered them not to ship them to Russia starting from 1 March, as Tekcelioğlu, chairman of the Istanbul Association of Ferrous and Nonferrous Metal Exporters, said.

"Any goods on that list are blocked from Russia, no matter which country they come from," Euractiv cited Cetin Tekcelioğlu, senior Turkish export official and diplomat.

As the EU representative states, Ankara has verbally assured the European Commission that starting from 1 March, goods subject to sanctions and export controls by the EU, the US or the UK will not be transited to Russia.

The Turkish Ministry of Commerce declined to comment.

Western countries imposed sanctions on Moscow after it invaded Ukraine last February. However, supply channels from Türkiye and other global trade centres remained open, prompting Washington to warn Ankara last month over exports of chemicals, microchips and other goods that could be used in Moscow's military operations.

Ankara is trying to balance its good ties with both Moscow and Kyiv in the midst of the war. It is fundamentally opposed to sanctions but has stated that it will not allow them to be circumvented in Türkiye and that the Russian military will be unable to use any of the supplied products for military purposes.

Given the serious warnings from Western governments, it was an opportunity to avoid a confrontation with the EU, where half of Türkiye's exports are sent under the common customs union, Tekcelioğlu said.

"There was a list of restrictions on re-exports from free trade zones to Russia beginning in March, and an instruction was given," he said.

However, even with components from other countries, goods made in Türkiye can still be sent to Russia without restrictions, Tekcelioğlu noted.

According to him, Türkiye's new restrictions have led Russian importers to look for alternative suppliers in Kazakhstan and other countries. "They don’t care about the cost anymore. They are just trying to finish their products," he noted.

Last week, Reuters reported that in recent weeks, Russian companies had been flooding their Kazakh partners (Ukr) with new requests for some of the thousands of items banned by the West, with two sources citing new Turkish restrictions.

The European Union plans to ask third countries, which have sharply increased imports of advanced technologies and other goods from the EU over the past year, to tighten trade controls so that Russia does not use them to circumvent sanctions.