Turkey secretly blocked the export of U.S. military-linked goods to Russia following warnings from Washington, the Financial Times reported, citing three anonymous sources with direct knowledge of the matter.
Ankara, which originally embraced the role of Moscow’s lifeline from Western sanctions, reportedly made the move in recent weeks without a public announcement due to the “political sensitivity” of the issue.
A senior U.S. export controls official traveled to Turkey in August to warn of “consequences” if Turkey did not step back from exporting battlefield goods to Russia.
FT reported that Turkey’s electronic customs system stopped allowing the shipment of items like processors and memory cards found in Russian missiles and drones, as well as machine tools and other equipment used to build weapons.
They are part of more than four dozen categories of U.S.-origin “battlefield goods” that originate from 50 “high-priority” Western-made items, which Western nations say are key to Russia’s imports for its arms industry.
Turkish exports of those sensitive goods fell to $4.1 million in August, after surging from $3 million a month at the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with a peak of $38 million in December 2022.
Some of the battlefield goods are now thought to be exported from Turkey to intermediaries like Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. The new Turkish trade curbs do not affect exports to these countries, FT reported.
China is the top exporter of those high-priority goods to Russia at $377 million in July.
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