Turkey’s authorities announced that transactions in trade with Russia would be settled bilaterally in national currencies. The established trade partners eventually came to this decision after 10 years of painstaking negotiations. Curiously, Turkish banks recently greenlighted payments through the Russian payment system but shortly after rejected accepting such bank cards. Thus, the announcement of intentions does not mean that the agreement will be implemented in practice.
The news on the approved scheme of international transactions has not been confirmed officially. The announcement comes from Hakan Topkurulu, head of the Turkish Motherland Party's economic policy department. In his interview with Aydınlılk, the politician stated that Ankara had begun trading with Russia in national currencies. The US cannot put a block on trade relations. Interestingly, Hakan Topkurulu evaded answering the question about the way of processing transactions and preferred to switch to a different issue. He said that well-informed people urged him not to disclose the matter and pointed out that transactions were carried out in rubles. “This exchange works like clockwork with an established network… Trading using national currencies has started in full swing. The US has no way to intervene. The US is cutting off the branch it sits on. Now there is no dollar in trade between Turkey and Russia, which is accepted as a world reserve currency,” the Turkish politician concluded.
