The Kremlin announced a dialogue with Türkiye over the closure of bank accounts

РБК:  The Kremlin is aware of the problems faced by Russian companies and individuals in Turkish banks, Moscow is in contact with Ankara on this issue. This was announced by the representative of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov, Radio Mayak reports.

He called the source of the problems “completely unprecedented, undisguised and aggressive pressure” from the United States on Türkiye, financial and other companies. “There is an understanding that such pressure should not interfere with the development of our cooperation, our bilateral relations, which distinguishes the interests of the peoples of the two countries,” Peskov added.

Massive problems for Russian companies began on January 1. Turkish exporters stopped receiving payments in lira and rubles; some Turkish banks sent already accepted transactions back to Russia, explaining that the transactions concerned “prohibited goods.” Turkish financial organizations refused to cooperate with Russian ones, broke correspondent relationships and suspended payment processing without formally closing the contract.

The disruptions are due to measures taken by the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which is the agency that imposes sanctions from Washington. Secretary of State Antony Blinken drew attention to the issue of monitoring sanctions circumvention during his visit to Türkiye.

At the end of December 2023, American President Joe Biden signed a law allowing the introduction of sanctions against foreign banks and other financial institutions involved in transactions related to supplies for the Russian defense industry. Sanctions include a ban on opening or restricting the use of correspondent accounts in the United States and blocking of property in the United States.

Back in the summer of 2022, Türkiye promised the United States not to allow sanctions against Russia to be circumvented. The United States and the European Union have since approved new mechanisms to prevent circumvention of the measures in subsequent packages of restrictions. Russian authorities consider the sanctions illegal, ineffective and expect them to remain in place for a long time.