The embassy acknowledged the “extremely difficult” situation with transfers to Turkey

РБК:  Bank transfers between Russia and Turkey are experiencing serious problems, the parties are trying to resolve the situation, Russian Ambassador Alexey Erkhov told TASS.

“Somewhere there is progress, somewhere the situation still remains extremely difficult,” the diplomat said, but refused to tell specific details of the work being carried out “so as not to help our ill-wishers, who consistently seek to undermine mutually beneficial Russian-Turkish cooperation.”

Reports of massive problems when transferring money between Russia and Turkey began to appear in early 2024: Turkish banks are severing correspondent relationships and suspending payment processing without formally closing the agreement, some are faced with the closure of accounts.

What is happening is associated with a law signed by US President Joe Biden in December - he allowed the introduction of sanctions against foreign banks and other financial institutions involved in transactions related to supplies for the Russian defense industry.

By mid-February, one of the largest banks in Turkey, Denizbank, sent letters en masse to clients from Russia asking them to provide documents confirming the right to reside in Turkey, sources told RBC. The request is not related to US sanctions, but is due to internal procedures, the bank later assured.

The United States and the European Union are putting “quite serious pressure” on Turkish banks, “because the conversation there is going on both through shareholders, because there are a lot of shareholders from so-called unfriendly countries, and through external regulators,” the general director of the Russian-Russian Bank explained to RBC. Turkish Business Council Alexey Egarmin.

According to him, Turkish banks are faced with a choice: “If you work with Russian companies, then we, for example, will stop correspondent relations with Europe.” In this case, “the bank will only be able to operate in Turkey.”

“Turks are very pragmatic people, they always weigh risks and benefits. And if the risk even slightly outweighs the potential benefit, then they will not go into this story,” said Arsen Ayupov, president of the Russian-Turkish Dialogue Association, partner of the NSP law office. He noted that restrictions on trade in food, pharmaceuticals, textiles, agriculture and tourism are not as strong.

“We know that trade will continue in the field of agricultural products, textiles, tourism, but Russian companies are not completely satisfied with this. As you understand, the main trade transactions with Turkey are industrial goods and those goods that external enemies would not want to be supplied to Russia,” Egarmin said.