In their third face-to-face meeting in just under two months, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, easy gas payments and other financial aid. In return, he praised the aid that Turkey is giving and that he foresees will soon restart the export of Russian products (cereals and fertilizers). “We are ready to significantly increase deliveries to the Republic of Turkey in all areas that are of interest to you,” Putin told Erdogan in Samarkand (Uzbekistan), where these days members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, led by Moscow and Beijing, and to which Turkey has been invited to participate despite not being a member.
Erdogan faces crucial elections in just nine months and the polls, at the moment, are leaning in favor of the opposition, mainly due to the critical economic situation (inflation of 80% according to official figures, more than double according to independent calculations) . With a large current account deficit —due to the energy bill and Erdogan’s heterodox monetary policy— and a Turkish lira whose price is maintained thanks to the constant shovelfuls of currency burned by the Central Bank, his government is in need of funds . Putin is willing to put them in order to maintain Ankara’s particular neutrality: a NATO member country, but opposed to many of its partners’ policies, it has refused to apply sanctions in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and it has become a key country to avoid them. However, some Turkish companies have begun to refuse payment through the Russian MIR card system – an agreement announced after the previous meeting between Putin and Erdogan – for fear of being subject to secondary sanctions by the West, as reported on Thursday. the middle Middle East Eye.
This is the only way to understand that Erdogan, who mediated to achieve the establishment of a naval corridor through the Black Sea —directed from Istanbul— that has allowed the resumption of Ukrainian cereal exports, has supported Putin’s statements in recent days that said corridor is not working properly because most of the grain goes to the European Union. In reality, it is around 40%, and the majority, community sources maintain, is used for re-export to third countries. 25% of the Ukrainian cereal that comes out through this route has gone to the Middle East and Africa, and about 20% to Turkey itself. In Samarkand, Putin did not repeat the threat to withdraw from the agreement and limited himself to saying: “We hope that a significant part will go through the UN food program to the poorest countries, something that is not happening for now.”
On the other hand, the Russian president assured that the agreement with Turkey for the export of Russian cereals through its territory is progressing positively. “Our economic operators have received corresponding signals that they can export our products through Turkey, considering that Turkey is a reliable partner in this field and that it can ensure deliveries to all countries of the world,” Putin explained. In addition to the agreements signed by Russia and Ukraine, separately, with Turkey and the UN for the implementation of the grain corridor from the Ukrainian ports of the Black Sea, there is a third text, not yet made public, signed between Moscow, Ankara and the United Nations. Nations on the Russian export of cereals and fertilizers.
In addition, the Russian president assured that an agreement is ready for entry into force that will allow Turkey to pay 25% of the gas it acquires from Russia in rubles, something that will somewhat reduce the bill, given the appreciation of the dollar in recent months. According to Turkish sources quoted by the Bloomberg agency, Erdogan had gone to Samarkand with the request for a reduction in the price of Russian gas and the proposal to pay part in Turkish liras.
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Both leaders also influenced the progress in the Akkuyu plant, the first nuclear power plant that Turkey will have and which is being built by a Russian company. Within the framework of this agreement, just over 9,000 million dollars (a similar amount in euros) will be transferred to Turkey, of which more than a third have already arrived, according to data from the Turkish Central Bank. Likewise, the “Errors and omissions” section of Turkey’s balance of payments has increased to record figures (24.4 billion in the first seven months of the year), something that some analysts attribute to income in the Turkish financial system through unofficial channels that could be related to Russia.
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