Alexey Vedev: Biden's executive order is unlikely to affect trade ties between Russia and Turkey

At the end of 2023, U.S. President, Joe Biden, signed an Executive Order meaning that foreign banks could fall under restrictions for transactions support to sub-sanctioned individuals and supplies to Russia's defense industry. Afterwards, Turkish banks stopped making money transfers from and to Russia neither in lira, rubles, dollars or any other currency. This situation also affected Russian people. They began to receive letters demanding provision of documents confirming their residence in Turkey. Certain inconveniences arose: the requirements for opening accounts for individuals from the Russian Federation have been tightened, and relations with Russian partners complicated by restrictions on settlements and the threat of account closure.

Alexey Vedev expressed his view that Russia's relations with Turkey have always been uneven, ranging from love to hate. On the one hand, if we recall 2014-2016, Turkey was actively helping Russia to circumvent Western sanctions, supplying Greek tomatoes under the guise of its own, as well as parts for industrial assembly of washing machines. At the same time, the expert added, official Ankara sometimes behaved in trade in a very strange, impulsive and frankly unfriendly manner, which resulted in big losses for local businesses. According to Alexey Vedev, it is unlikely that President Biden's Executive Order scared Turkish banks so much that they decided to avoid business with partners in Russia. The closer the tourist season approaches, the gentler Turkey will treat Russians, he summarized.