US Sanctions Threaten Russia/Turkey Trade

US sanction threats for financial firms doing business with Russia has caused Turkey-Russia trade to slow according to Reuters sources.

• The disruption to Russian-Turkish payments began when Biden signed the executive order on December 22, threatening firms helping Russia circumvent sanctions with the risk of losing assess to the US financial system.
• It has disrupted or slowed payments for both imported oil and Turkish exports they said.
• Similar payment problems to those now faced by Turkey have already disrupted Russian oil supplies to India and complicated those to the UAE and China according to the sources.
• "It has become difficult to make some energy payments to Russia, especially after the new sanctions (threat) at the end of December. Some payments were disrupted," a Turkish source familiar with the payments issue said to Reuters.